“I love BJP with all my heart, I love Modi with all my heart,” said Soumen Das. “But today I can’t show my face in my own village. What hav...
“I love BJP with all my heart, I love Modi with all my heart,” said Soumen Das. “But today I can’t show my face in my own village. What have our party leaders done by taking the Trinamool’s candidate? I simply can’t understand.”
Das, 25, typifies the attraction Narendra Modi and his aggressive brand of politics holds for many young Hindu men in Bengal. Das joined the party in 2019, working hard in a state that can often be harsh on opposition workers. But today he is angry with the party for one rather specific reason: candidate selection.
Das lives and works in the Singur Assembly constituency in West Bengal which goes to vote on Saturday. In 2008, Singur shot to infamy for being the site of a movement led by then opposition leader Mamata Banerjee protesting against the forcible acquisition of land for an automotive plant of Tata Motors by the Left Front government. The anger against the Left that Singur let off is seen to be one of the major reasons for the end of its 34-year rule in 2011. In 2016, the Supreme Court added to the Left’s wounds, ruling that the land acquisition was illegal with one judge questioning how land...
