13 LS seats with sizeable portion of Muslim voters under focus of Bengal BJP

Kolkata, Jan 30 (IANS) Understanding that sheer dependence on majority votes is not enough for bigger electoral achievements in West Bengal, the state unit of BJP has now decided to concentrate on 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state with a sizable portion of Muslim voters, sources said.

The sources said that there will be a special drive during which party volunteers will go to the doorsteps of these minority voters and will take note of their grievances so that the BJP will be able adopt strategies for these constituencies for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Special emphasis in the exercise will be given to those who come from backward financial background.

These 13 Lok Sabha constituencies have been identified on the basis of the proportion of minority voters there ranging from 32 per cent to 64 per cent.

They are Baharampur, Jangipur, Murshidabad, Raiganj, Malda (South), Malda (North), Basirhat, Jadavpur, Birbhum, Krsihannagar, Diamond Harbour, Jainagar and Mathurapur.

Among these constituencies Baharampur in Murshidabad has the highest concentration of Muslim voters at 64 per cent, while Mathurapur has the lowest at slightly over 32 per cent.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls despite Congress facing a disaster countrywide, the voters of Baharampur re-elected five-time party MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

On the other hand, Mathurapur, an earlier stronghold of CPI(M), in 2019 re-elected three-time Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Choudhury Mohan Jatua.

Although the BJP bagged 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, barring Raiganj and Malda (North), the lotus did not bloom in the remaining 11 constituencies mentioned above.

"Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the party leadership a clear directive to reach out to the minority voters in the country. Accordingly, individual state leaderships were also asked to identify the minority-dominated pockets and reach out to the voters there. Accordingly, these 13 constituencies in West Bengal with sizable proportion of minority voters have been identified for this special interaction drive," a state committee member of the party said.