RPI enters West Bengal 2021 fray; Ramdas Athawale announces party will contest on 10 seats

Entering the 2021 West Bengal Assembly fray, Ramdas Athawale on Wednesday has announced that his faction - Republican Party of India - will contest the upcoming polls. The RPI chief has stated that it would continue its alliance with the NDA and will contest on 10 Vidhan Sabha seats in a bid to overthrow the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government. Elections for the 294-seater West Bengal Assembly are due in April 2021. 

"The Republican Party of India (Athawale) will field its candidates in the assembly seats of West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress will be defeated in the upcoming elections and the NDA government will be formed in West Bengal," Athawale tweeted on Wednesday in Hindi. 

BJP-TMC battle in Bengal

With RPI entering the Bengal battle, the BJP is set to fight the TMC with some supportive arsenal in their armoury. In the previous elections in 2016, the TMC had retained its majority with 224 seats. While the BJP could only manage to win 3 seats back then, the 2019 general elections revived a ray of hope for the saffron party in Bengal as it bagged 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP has also launched a scathing offensive in West Bengal already with party chief JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah already visiting the state. The duo will be campaigning in the state every alternate month until the elections. 

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While the BJP aims to sweep the polls with a renewed attack, the TMC has been hit hard by the exit of some close aides. Recently, TMC's Suvendu Adhikari resigned from Mamata's faction and also quit his post as the chairman of the Hooghly River Bridge Commission. While there are reports of Adhikari jumping the ship, his exit will surely hurt TMC's 2021 chances. Moreover, the ruling party's Asansol strongman Jitendra Tiwari has also expressed his displeasure with the party. 

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TMC and BJP have already begun trading blows over key issues much ahead of the polls. The BJP has called out the CM Mamata Banerjee-led administration over the prevailing law & order situation, accused it of corruption and also a failure to provide jobs. BJP's national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya has also assured implementation of the contentious CAA law in the state soon. Moreover, citing the worrying law & order situation in the state and growing political violence, the BJP has also reached out to the Election Commission and has sought implementation of the Moral Code of Conduct (MCC) in the state. 

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