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NEW DELHI: Pitting Suvendu Adhikari — who defeated CM Mamata Banerjee in his turf, Nandigram, in 2021 — against her in Bhabanipur was only the beginning of Union minister Amit Shah’s determined bid to take down the TMC supremo in her backyard. What followed was precise execution of gruelling groundwork and focused management that ultimately led to her stunning fall, capping the decimation of her party in Bengal — Suvendu’s giant-killing achievement being the most dramatic upset of the elections. But behind the headline grabbing feat was a lot of ‘silent work’ on the watch of Shah, with BJP sources in the know saying the home minister had made up his mind to put in an all-out effort to defeat Mamata in her pocket borough as he prepared the spadework for BJP’s path to victory.
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With a combative Suvendu proving an able foil, Shah set out to put together a dedicated team for Bhabanipur to ensure effective execution of his strategy. Every night he spent in Kolkata, he held meetings focused solely on this seat, said a source who had been drafted for BJP’s campaign effort.Also Read | Iron barrier falls, road to Mamata Banerjee’s home open to publicThat the constituency had around 25,000 Gujarati voters and 21,000 Marwari voters, communities that held the balance, Shah met groups of them separately and as they shared their views, with an informal dinner providing an affable setting. These communities alleged TMC members resorted to strongarm tactics to prevent them from voting in earlier polls and that fake votes were often cast in their names. “They said if their societies were provided security, they would be able to vote freely. Shah ensured that protection was arranged at every such location,” a BJP functionary said.
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Shah’s team also appointed a dedicated booth-level in-charge across every booth in Bhabanipur. Their job was twofold — to flag any internal rift within the party and to report any TMC intimidation on the ground. Shah’s personal target was to get all BJP workers to cast their votes before 11 am and then work to ensure maximum turnout for the party. BJP members, including MLAs from other states with whom different communities could relate, were also deployed. Through the SIR process, around 47,000 names were removed from the voter rolls in Bhabanipur — these were either deceased voters or duplicate entries that TMC alleged were exploited to cast bogus votes. All the efforts finally came together to deliver a crushing defeat by over 15,000 votes to Mamata that few expected, even as she alleged that elections were stolen from her and her party through undemocratic means.
