Will BJP’s Gambit Pay Off by Fielding Netaji Kin Against Mamata?

By projecting Chandra Bose as it CM candidate in Bengal, the BJP seeks to encash on Subhas Bose, writes Rajat Roy.

Political parties have often tried to appropriate the legacy of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to enhance their electoral prospects. The Forward Bloc, the leftist party Subhas launched before he went “missing”, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress have all sought to do so in the past.

The BJP has now joined the bandwagon by nominating Chandra Bose, one of Netaji’s grandnephews, as its candidate for the Bhawanipore assembly constituency in Kolkata. The BJP has projected him as its chief ministerial candidate.

Although Chandra Bose hails from an illustrious political family, he has never been active in public life before playing an active role in seeking declassification of the Netaji files. He joined the BJP very recently -- on 25 January this year – two days after 100 files on Netaji were declassified by the Narendra Modi government.

The Bose Lineage

Chandra Bose is a grandson of Sarat Chandra Bose, Subhas’s elder brother. Sarat Chandra had four sons – Amiya Nath, Ashok, Sisir and Subrata. Of the four, Sisir Bose was once elected to the West Bengal assembly on a Congress ticket in the 1980s, Subrata Bose was a Forward Bloc MP during 2004-2009. Sisir’s wife, Krishna Bose, was elected to the Lok Sabha on a Trinamool Congress ticket in 1999, and her son Sugata Bose (representing the TMC) was elected to the Lower House in 2014.

The extended Bose family is divided on the issue of whether Netaji died in the plane crash in Taihoku. The family of Sisir Kumar, his widow Krishna and historian-son Sugata accept the air crash theory, but others have outright rejected the plane crash theory. Instead, they claim it as a conspiracy hatched by the then political establishment to suppress certain unpalatable truths.

Embracing the BJP

Chandra Bose, like others in the family, tried to press upon the government to declassify all files related to Netaji. In December 2014, he along with his aunt Chitra Ghosh and cousin Abhijit Ray approached an RSS leader and handed over a letter urging him to take the initiative for the release of the Netaji files. In April 2015, Surya, Chandra’s elder brother and a longtime resident of Germany, met Modi in Berlin and requested him to declassify the Netaji files at the earliest.

Chandra got the opportunity to meet Modi a few months later in October 2015. Over 50 members of the extended Netaji family were invited to the prime minister’s 7, Race Course Road, residence for a discussion on the contentious issue of the Netaji files.

A former employee of Tata Steel, Chandra had never had a brush with public life prior to the resurgence of the controversy surrounding the Netaji files. At the age of 55, Chandra found himself in the role of spokesman of that section of the Netaji family which does not subscribe to the Taihoku air crash theory. By agreeing to declassify the Netaji files, the Modi government, and by default the BJP, won over this section of Netaji’s family to its side. Chandra’s decision to join the BJP was a logical extension of that endeavour.

A Desperate Move

The move to field Chandra Bose as a BJP candidate against Mamata is based on the result of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP led in 23 assembly segments across West Bengal in the general elections before the final results were declared. Bhawanipore is one of these assembly segments.

Riding the crest of a Modi wave, the BJP’s vote share soared to almost 17 per cent from 4 per cent. This time around, there is no Modi wave, so the BJP is desperate to latch on to some names, be that of a film actress (of Rupa Ganguly) and Locket Chatterjee, or a scion of the Netaji family.

It seems that though there is little interest around the Netaji files, politicians seek to appropriate Subhas Bose with an eye on raking in votes. Realising that the Centre would eventually declassify the Netaji files, Mamata Banerjee stole a march over the Modi government by releasing 67 files, which were in the state government’s custody, in 2015. When the Modi government released 100 files on January 23, 2016, Mamata demanded that Netaji must be awarded with the title of Desha Nayak.

High-Profile Contest

Now, by pitting Chandra Bose against Mamata, the BJP has tried to neutralise whatever advantage the mercurial TMC leader might get from the ‘Netaji’ issue. As for Chandra’s electoral prospects, a Bose family member said on condition of anonymity, that while his projection as the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate will certainly boost his profile, he is also a sacrificial lamb in a keenly contested election.

Though a new entrant in politics, Chandra has been quite adept at quickly picking up the language of politicians. After getting the party ticket for the Bhawanipore seat, he said that the change for which people had voted the TMC to power in 2011 had not materialised. Only the BJP was capable of bringing about change, he said.

Despite its relatively good show in 2014, the BJP has hardly any presence in the state and its only hope is that this high-profile contest may grab public attention, thus giving its poll campaign some leverage.

(The writer is a former executive editor of Ananda Bazar Patrika)

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