Donations of Rs 10, Rs 100 and Rs 1,000 sought - Ram temple fundraising drive used for Bengal poll survey

Sources in the VHP and BJP said the effort would continue till Feb 28 and enable them to make a preliminary assessment of the party's support base in the state

A group of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and BJP supporters on Friday in front of a temple at Dangapara in Jalpaiguri from where they initiated the collection drive : Biplab Basak

TT Bureau   |   Siliguri   |   16.01.21 : Temple is meeting the temporal in Bengal as the Sangh parivar launched on Friday a fundraising drive for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Using the donation window, the parivar has begun a dipstick survey in Bengal to assess its support base and launch an outreach campaign ahead of the Assembly elections.

As the donation drive, initiated by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, began across the country, parivar officials revealed that the initiative in Bengal had a political objective too.

“The fund collection programme is a bit different in Bengal. As elections are approaching here, we will collect the basic details of all the donors in the state during the drive,” said Krishnendu Guha, district spokesperson for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Jalpaiguri.

On Friday, VHP and BJP activists were seen distributing wads of printed receipts — for donations of Rs 10, Rs 100 and Rs 1,000 — among the fund collectors. The foot soldiers were being instructed to start with the villages and municipal wards, and remember to collect the donors’ details.

Sources in the VHP and the BJP said the effort would continue till February 28 and enable them to make a preliminary assessment of the BJP’s support base in the state.

“This will act as a dipstick survey for us, for it’s unlikely that a donor or his family would not support us in the upcoming elections. The donor database is therefore also a supporter database for us,” a source said.

He said the data would help the parivar to not just map the constituency-wise support for the BJP but also draw up an intensive outreach campaign ahead of the polls.

“Specific campaign strategies for particular regions would be drawn up after analysing the database.... The data will also make it easier to communicate with the supporters ahead of the polls using their phone numbers,” a source said.

The Supreme Court had in November 2019 handed the disputed plot in Ayodhya to Hindus and asked the government to form a trust to build the Ram temple. Following this, the nationwide fundraising drive was planned for the Rs 1,100-crore temple project.

As it became clear on Friday that the fundraising effort would be used as an electoral tool in Bengal, Trinamul Congress leaders accused the Sangh parivar of using religion for politics.

“As expected, the saffron ecosystem is trying to play the religion card for political gain. But such strategies will not work here,” said Trinamul’s district chief for Jalpaiguri, K.K. Kalyani. “People will choose Trinamul because of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s inclusive approach and the development carried out by her government.”

Kalyani added: “We will keep an eye out to ensure that the fundraising drive doesn’t lead to any breach of peace.”