The BJP has come up with a master stroke to combine nationalistic sentiments with Bengali pride by fielding Lt General (retired) Subrata Saha as the candidate from the prestigious Rashbehari constituency of South Kolkata for the forthcoming assembly elections in West Bengal.

Lt Gen Saha is the former Deputy Chief of Army Staff and a member of the National Advisory Board with great accomplishments in his professional life as a soldier.

Saha said, “I helped establish the Army Design bureau for Make in India for the Army on August 31, 2016” as reported by the ANI.

He further added by acknowledging the need to improve security by stating, “I have served four decades in the army and now is the time to serve people. Securing the lives of people of the constituency from all criminal, violent and illegal activities happening would be a priority. We have a long march ahead.”

Notably, political violence and murders has become a norm in Bengal right from the seventies when the Marxists came to power and there was no Paribortan as promised by Mamata Banerjee in the past 10 years of her rule. In fact her rule has been a reign of terror for opposition parties like the BJP as just in the past two years 130 BJP workers were murdered allegedly by TMC .

Right from the seventies Bengal has suffered an anti-industrial development culture due to politics of strike followed by the Marxists and continued in Mamata’s regime. This has resulted in Bengal becoming economically backward with no job opportunities for the past several decades forcing many educated Bengalis to migrate out of Bengal for better employment opportunities.

The BJP aims to re-establish the culture of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Subash Chandra Bose, Rashbehari Bose, Rabindranath Tagore and Syama Prasad Mukherjee as stated by the BJP National President, JP Nadda. Therefore, the decision to field Lt Gen Saha from the prestigious constituency in South Kolkata named after the legendary freedom fighter, Rashbehari Bose would pave the way and give BJP the heft it needs intellectually and leadership wise to build a new resurgent Bengal.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.