Rajnath uses different approach than Modi for Mamata Banerjee

NEW DELHI: There are differences in BJP over how to deal with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, but the party managers have decided to use both lines, so that it looks like a two-pronged strategy to deal with the Trinamool chief.

If the party's prime ministerial candidate and chief campaigner Narendra Modi broke the truce a couple of weeks back and has since been sparring bitterly with the Trinamool Congress chief, who is not one to back out of the ring without punching back, party chief Rajnath Singh has not chosen to use friendly face, keeping the post May-16 scenario in mind.

A strong section within BJP feel that given the prospect of the party coming to office at the Centre this time, such a bitter fight between prospective allies should not be taking place, specially at the personal level which becomes irreparable in future. "This must stop" said a senior party leader who strongly feels that the Rajnath Singh line is the more pragmatic option. But, according to another section in the party, the Modi line is a gamble that BJP has taken to gain a little more than it usually does in a state where its footprints are weak.

It took quite some time for BJP to get into the warpath with Mamata, who after all is an estranged NDA ally. Even on Sunday Modi, took on Mamata, but that was a day after Singh renewed his offer of a giving Bengal the best possible package if NDA came to office. Singh also explained to TOI on Sunday that Mamata must realise it is not Congress but BJP which is fighting the Left, her archrival in the state. Therefore, Singh's is a well thought out move to cool the Bengal CM's tempers, for the long run.

While Modi's overtures are compelled by the possibility of BJP's voteshare going up in the state and hence resulting in a couple seats that otherwise seem distant for the saffron party, Singh is clearly offering an olive branch, with the real picture in mind. On the ground even if BJP picks up a couple of seats, an improved voteshare could only hurt TMC. That would be advantage Left, as votes which move to BJP are unlikely to come from the Left's kitty.

The Left's gain, in turn, could only be to the Congress's advantage as it can ally only with a non-BJP coalition. So Modi's gamble of trying to hit TMC and gain from the anti-incumbency against the three-year old Mamata Banerjee government could only benefit BJP if the party manages to get a good number of seats, not otherwise, feel many.