Kolkata, Sept. 20 -- In a major strategic push, the BJP is trying to capitalise on Durga Puja to challenge the Trinamool Congress on its own turf, turning the festival into a pre-election battlefield where cultural pride and migrant anxieties are being contested.
As the ruling TMC lends its weight to 'Bengali Asmita' (Bengali pride), often invoking the alleged plight of Bengali migrant workers and issues of cultural identity, West Bengal BJP leaders have begun travelling to other states and union Territories to meet Bengali puja committees and community groups there.
The outreach, framed publicly as festive-season contact work is, according to party insiders, part of a subtler design to persuade West Bengal voters and their relatives who ...