Kolkata: Marking a shift from its 2019 Lok Sabha polls strategy, Trinamool Congress (TMC) has focused its campaign for the coming battle primarily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and not the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Launched on social media platforms, TMC’s campaign has been named ‘Jaan ki Baat’ (voice of the people) to specifically counter Modi’s popular radio show Maan ki Baat (speaking from the heart).

The BJP has hit back, making caricatures of West Bengal chief minister and TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee.

The saffron camp fired its first salvo on Valentine’s Day, showing Banerjee as an avatar of Adolf Hitler. The caption read: “Are you a Hitler? Coz your ideology is the same as his. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

On Thursday night, BJP circulated another caricature showing Banerjee as Ma Sharada Debi, wife of Hindu mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansha, triggering a strong reaction from TMC. The caption in the graphics targeted Banerjee on communal lines over the ongoing row at Sandeshkhali, where a few local TMC leaders have been accused of exploiting village women.

Bengal’s minister of state for finance, Chandrima Bhattacharya, condemned the use of Ma Sharada Debi’s likeness in a political poster that carries a communal message.

“This is disgraceful. The BJP has not spared even Ma Sharada to secure votes. The poster exposes the BJP’s actual mindset on Hindus,” Bhattacharya said on Friday.

No BJP leader was ready to comment on the controversial campaign.

Although Banerjee rarely targets PM Modi directly in her political speeches – something seen as a strategy to keep the doors for administrative discussions open – TMC has adopted a different approach in its campaign this time.

The direct political attacks started on January 11 when the TMC’s first campaign video focused on unemployment across India. Referring to the promise Modi made a decade ago, the narrator in the video asked, “Modi Ji, where are the 2 crore jobs?”

Over the next few weeks, TMC launched the hashtag campaign #NoVoteForModi and released a series of data-intensive posters on issues such as gender inequality in employment, income disparities across economic strata and fall in industrial production post-demonetisation. Each poster is titled “What PM Modi wants us to forget before 2024 Lok Sabha polls.”

TMC has also focused on Gujarat by releasing posters, which claim that the healthcare system has failed in Modi’s home state.

“This is a sharp turn in our approach, something many of the anti-BJP parties in the INDIA coalition has not taken yet,” a senior TMC leader said on condition of anonymity.

The strategy has been formulated on the advice of Indian Political Action Committee, or I-PAC, the company launched by election strategist Prashant Kishor, TMC leaders said. I-PAC was roped in by the party after BJP wrested 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, creating a record.

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“After I-PAC helped TMC secure a resounding victory in the 2021 assembly elections our party renewed its contract with the company. Kishor quit I-PAC in 2021 but his team is here,” a TMC MP said, seeking anonymity.

TMC leaders argued that their campaign may be targeted at Modi but there are numerous instances when Banerjee had shown political courtesy to the Prime Minister.

In November 2022, for example, Banerjee refused to attack the Prime Minister for the bridge collapse in Gujarat’s Morbi.

“I will not make any comment on Prime Minister Modi. Gujarat is his state. It is a tragic incident. I offer my condolences to the families of the bereaved. This is not a political issue,” Banerjee said although other TMC leaders targeted Modi for statements he made against her in 2016 after an under- construction flyover collapsed in Kolkata, killing more than 20 people.

“Banerjee also showed courtesy to the Prime Minister in September 2022 when the state legislative assembly passed a resolution accusing federal probe agencies of indulging in excesses. She said she does not believe that Modi instructs the agencies to use power beyond their limits against TMC leaders. She said the resolution was not against any person,” a TMC legislator, who was present at the assembly on that day, said.

TMC Rajya Sabha member Santanu Sen justified the change in campaign strategy.

Sen said: “Modi is our target because it is his photograph that you see everywhere, be it the gate of a medical college or a plastic bag. He is seeking publicity for everything around us, showing an attitude not befitting of a Prime Minister.”

Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said: “The PM is the TMC’s target because he is the symbol of every success the nation has achieved. He is the guarantor of progress.”

“This is I-PAC’s strategy. Banerjee is not in a position to claim the Prime Minister’s chair in this race. We believe that around 5% votes in every Lok Sabha constituency is reserved only for Modi. This is a personality-driven polarisation. The more they target Modi, more will be the votes for BJP,” Bhattacharya added.

Political science professor Udayan Bandopadhyay feels that two factors prompted TMC to shift its focus.

Bandopadhyay said: “The ‘No vote to BJP’ campaign has become cliché. You can’t influence voters with the same slogan over and over again. More importantly, Modi has attained a larger than life image within BJP. This often reminds us of the old Congress slogan, Indira is India. TMC is trying to attack Modi in the same manner in which Jayaprakash Narayan targeted Indira Gandhi in the 1977 elections after Emergency.”