Heena Sharma Blog

After the BJP's defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections , poll managers of its West Bengal unit are divided whether to push its aggressive strategy on the CAA-NRC or mellow it down and lace it with alternate policies of governance. The BJP that recently suffered a defeat at the hands of the AAP, which won the polls for the third consecutive time on the plank of good governance, is in two minds about its strategy for 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal. According to state BJP sources, just like West Bengal where the party won 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 Parliamentary polls, it had won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. "But within a few months, we saw that the results are completely opposite in Lok Sabha polls and Assembly polls in Delhi. So we cannot take it for granted that just because we won 18 seats in Bengal, we will also win the Assembly polls." Read More

In a bid to reach out to voters, especially the young one, the ruling TMC and the opposition BJP in West Bengal have extended their fight to the social media with innovative ideas and catchy jingles. Dedicated teams comprising hundreds of volunteers are slogging away to ensure that the "Jumla metre" and " Pradhan mantri hisab do " campaign of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the "Main Bhi Chowkidar" music video of the BJP reach their target audience. From coming out with web series to catchy online songs to campaigns, both the parties are looking at making optimal use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, besides traditional emails and SMS. Attacking the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the TMC has launched a web series "Pradhan Mantri Hisab Do" (Prime Minister, answer this). In this campaign, the party is releasing a short video everyday on twitter and Facebook comparing the "failure...

The BJP in its first list of 28 candidates for West Bengal has pinned hopes on its veterans and defectors from the ruling Trinamool Congress to take on the Mamata Banerjee's government in the state. Of the 28 candidates, nearly 25 are new faces, with a thrust on active political workers rather than greenhorns from the glamour world. The saffron party, which bagged two Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 elections, is now targeting 23 of the state's 42 constituencies. Unlike the TMC list, which had 18 new faces and a mix of both old timers and greenhorns, hardcore politicians and personalities from the film industry, the BJP has put faith on its own leaders and defectors from other parties. There are four women candidates and one Muslim nominee in the first list. Of the candidates, five had recently defected to the saffron party from the Trinamool Congress and one from the CPI(M). Union minister and BJP MP from Asansol Lok Sabha constuency Babul Supriyo has been renom...

An advertising blitz by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's administration, which saw more than 150 newspaper ads exulting over its performance in 10 days, stopped on Monday, a day after the schedule for the next general election was announced. The election will be held over seven stages from April 11 in what will be the world's biggest democratic exercise, the Election Commission said on Sunday, when a code of conduct over election campaigning came into force. Citing the code, the commission said "no advertisements shall be issued in electronic and print media highlighting the achievements of the govt. at the cost of public exchequer". Leading English-language national dailies including the Times of India, the Hindustan Times and the Indian Express carried no government ads on Monday. The New Delhi editions of the same three newspapers had 162 government ads between March 1 and March 10, according to Reuters calculations. Of those, 93 were full page....