Bengal BJP Softens Its Tone On Minorities, Didi Says Saffron Party Is Anti-Bengali

The Bengal BJP is recalibrating from its earlier hardline Hindutva stance to adopt a more measured political tone, even as chief minister Mamata Banerjee intensifies her charge that the party is anti-Bengali, communal, and attempting to bring the NRC into the state through indirect means. The shift became most evident when Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari softened his long-held claim that the BJP neither expects nor needs minority votes. After months of asserting that minorities never support the BJP and that a 5-6% rise in Hindu votes would be enough to form government, he has now reinterpreted his stance, saying the party simply does not receive minority votes rather than rejecting them. There is no indication that the BJP’s central leadership has instructed the state unit to soften its tone, and even central leaders acknowledge that polarisation has helped the party perform better in rural regions. Trinamool Congress leaders argue that Adhikari has realised Hindutva alone will not secure victory for the party. Party insiders see the shift as a strategic effort to weaken the strong perception that a BJP government would threaten minorities and instead minority votes may fragment rather than consolidate behind the Trinamool. Adhikari has recently suggested that AIMIM and ISF could draw minority support and predicted that the Trinamool may not win any seat in Malda, with the BJP securing a significant share. The BJP’s choice of Shamik Bhattacharya, viewed as a moderate, as state president was aimed at appealing to the liberal urban middle-class Bengali electorate that is harder to draw with hardline rhetoric.