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Bengal polls: New contender in race, far-Right group Hindu Samhati forms party
Registered as an NGO, the group is known for its stand against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The race to secure Hindu votes in West Bengal assembly polls due in March-April found a new contender on Sunday when the far-Right group Hindu Samhati announced the formation of its political party, Jana Samhati, for contesting at least 170 of the 294 seats.
Hindu Samhati, which observed its foundation day on Sunday, has grown in several districts, especially in south Bengal, since its formation in 2008 by Tapan Ghosh, a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak.
Registered as an NGO and known for its stand against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Hindu Samhati made headlines during the Basirhar riots in 2017 when Ghosh provided legal protection to the two minor boys whose social media post triggered arson and led to a death.
The BJP has sworn to win at least 200 seats in Bengal, where Muslims comprise about 30 per cent of the population. The party performed well in the 2019 Lok Sabha seats, winning 18 of the state’s 42 seats.
Hindu Samhati backed the BJP in 2019 but the leadership has now returned to its old position.
“Hindu Samhati will continue to work as an independent organization. The Jana Samhati, which has been registered as a political party, will contest 40 seats in north Bengal and 130 in the south Bengal. Right now, we have no plans to have allies. We supported the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but there has been a paradigm shift in its position since then. Common people have to pay a price if it comes to power in Bengal. Hindus are losing their faith in the BJP,” Debtanu Bhattacharya, president of the Jana Samhati told HT.
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Bhattacharya is heading Hindu Samhati since mid-2018 when Ghosh quit the organisation, saying some of the leaders were being used by the BJP. Around the same time, a group of Hindu Samhati leaders also left and formed an organisation called Singha Bahini which is headed by Devdutta Maji.
Last month, Maji joined the BJP and appealed to all Hindu groups outside the Sangh Parivar to support the BJP in the coming polls.
Bhattacharya followed Tapan Ghosh’s line of thought on Sunday. “The BJP is making false promises on the new citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Several Hindu groups from Assam and Tripura are in touch with us. Hindus are languishing in detention camps in Assam. In Bengal, the backward Matua community, which demanded enforcement of the Citizenship Amendment Act, is being used as a pawn to secure votes,” said Bhattacharya.
In an indirect appeal to Bhattacharya, Maji said, “I once again urge all Hindu groups to support the BJP. If Hindu votes get divided it will help not only the Trinamool Congress (TMC) but anti-national forces as well.”
In the past, The Hindu Samhati was branded by the Left and the BJP as the TMC’s unofficial Hindutva front but the ruling party denied the charge.
“Hindu Samhati has not done any political work. So, its new party will have no impact on the polls. It can only cause damage to our secular politics,” TMC Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy said on Sunday evening.
Samik Bhattacharya, chief spokesperson of the BJP’s Bengal unit, said any political party can join the race but it will remain a bipolar contest between the BJP and the TMC.
“In a democracy, all are free to contest but the smaller forces will become ringside viewers,” quipped Bhattacharya.
Political analyst and columnist Suvashis Maitra said the entry of Jana Samhati adds to the election engineering that Bengal did not witness earlier.
“With so many small players and regional parties from the Hindu belt in the fray, predicting results will become all the more difficult. Psephologists will have a tough time,” said Maitra.
