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Rifat Jawaid in Calcutta
The surprise decision of the Trinamul Congress to pull out of the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre has the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party worried.
With the Trinamul determined to snap its ties with the saffron brigade in Bengal too, a beleaguered state BJP leadership has begun giving a fresh look to its poll strategy for the forthcoming assembly elections.
With the party riding piggyback to the Trinamul's popularity in Bengal so far, Thursday's developments have come as a rude shock to BJP leaders.
The BJP tied up with Mamata after she quit the Congress to float Trinamul Congress in January 1998. The Trinamul-BJP combine won 11 Lok Sabha seats in the last election (including one in a bypoll). The combine also wrested the Calcutta Municipal Corporation from the Left Front bringing to an end the Communists' 30 years of dominance in the CMC.
However, Mamata's decision to end her romance with the BJP has put paid to the latter's hopes of gaining more ground in Bengal.
The BJP state headquarters at Central Avenue on Friday was enveloped in a mysterious silence with no leader willing to comment on Mamata's withdrawal of support to the NDA.
When contacted, a visibly dejected BJP state unit vice-president, Muzaffar Khan, told rediff.com that his party was prepared to go alone in the assembly polls. "There is no end to options in politics. If needed, we are ready to fight the assembly elections on our own," Khan said.
Will the BJP now contest all 294 seats in the state?
Khan said that the state leaders will be meeting in Calcutta on Friday evening to 'assess the situation.'
Clearly, the choices before the BJP are limited. The party's only hope lies in Mamata changing her mind.
"A few senior Trinamul leaders, including party MP Sudip Bandopadhyay, favour continuance of the alliance in the state. We are hoping that Mamata Banerjee would not let the developments in Delhi affect our electoral plan in Bengal," a BJP leader said.
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