BJP connects with ‘chai pe charcha’ & more

Kolkata: BJP seniors on Saturday changed gear from the macro to the micro amid Covid restrictions in the Bhowanipore bypoll campaign, focusing on “chai pe charcha” and door-to-door campaigns for better voter persuasion.
Union minister Smriti Irani walked the narrow alleys along with BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal, moving away from the high-decibel assembly poll campaign that didn’t yield the desired result.Irani bought articles from a shop on the Kalighat temple road before stepping in to offer puja and later joined the campaign.
“Mamata Banerjee left Bhowanipore. She has come back again and saying she can’t continue as CM if she doesn’t get votes. We are seeking votes for development. Mamata doesn’t have development in her agenda,” Irani said.
BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh also met groups over cups of tea at ward 70 and reached out to some houses to distribute voter slips. He came down heavily on the CM regarding her comments against BJP’s protests over “post-poll violence victim” (Magrahat leader Dhurjati Saha) near her residence. “Trinamool had introduced this politics in Bengal. Now she is complaining. There are many instances where bodies were brought to the city from Jangalmahal and Hooghly. If she can do it, she should better bear with it when someone else does it,” Ghosh said.
In the afternoon, BJP leaders staged a demonstration at Hazra crossing against the CM’s “retaliatory remarks” over the dead. “The hearse carrying the body of Dhurjati Saha was one kilometre from the CM’s residence,” said BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar.
Irani also paid a visit to Saha’s home on Saturday to reassure the bereaved family that the party was with them. Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri had also visited BJP victim Abhijeet Sarkar’s Narkeldanga home.
Tibrewal said they were going to the CM’s residence with the dead to “show the body” because the CM had all along denied any such incident. “We went to tell Didi (Didi ke bolo) as she wants people to do. In return, we got non-bailable charges slapped on us,” she said.