To address this shortfall in numbers, the state BJP leadership has decided to induct members of other parties.
With internal surveys indicating that the Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ground-strength is falling short of the requirement, the state leaders are looking to augment numbers by taking in workers from other parties. Internal estimates say that the BJP currently has enough karyakartas to man approximately 52,000 booths, while the Election Commission has announced that the total number of booths in the state for the 2024 general election will be 80,453.
To address this shortfall in numbers, the state BJP leadership has decided to induct members of other parties.
“Before the 2021 elections, during the presidentship of Dilip Ghosh and under the active guidance of Mukul Roy and Kailash Vijayvargiya, we inducted leaders and celebrities. While it got us short-term publicity, after the elections, many defected or cut off ties with our party, which badly affected our image and gave the Trinamool Congress an opportunity to ridicule us,” a senior party leader to The Sunday Guardian on condition of anonymity. “Even Mukul Roy himself returned to the Trinamool Congress after the elections,” he added.
Keeping in mind this experience, state party president Sukanta Majumdar and the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, have held meetings in which it has been decided that it is more necessary to induct ground-level workers and leaders, rather than go after “big names”, sources said.
BJP state president, Sukanta Majumdar said: “We will take in the workers from other parties, including from the Trinamool Congress. But they will be absolutely booth-level workers. In the case of the Trinamool Congress, honest leaders and workers can only be found at that level. It is almost impossible to find any senior Trinamool Congress leader who is honest.”
The BJP state unit is forming a state-level committee to vet the process of induction. Unlike last time, it is the committee which will decide, rather than any particular leader or coterie, sources say. In the case of any big leader, the matter will be decided only after consulting the Central leadership of the party.
On Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party had announced the formation of a 15-member election management committee to oversee Lok Sabha campaign in West Bengal. The party announced this on the day Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda came to Kolkata to take stock of the readiness of the state unit.
The core members of the committee are Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda, Satish Dhond, Mangal Pandey, state party chief Sukanta Majumdar, MP and former state president Dilip Ghosh, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, Rahul Sinha, Amitabh Chakraborty, and Asha Lakra.
The committee also has five general secretaries, including MP Locket Chatterjee, MLA from Asansol South Agnimitra Paul, state secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato and Deepak Burman.
The BJP is targeting to win 35 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in the coming polls. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP had set a target to win 22 seats and bagged 18.
BJP sources said that while the upcoming inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22 is expected to boost Hindutva sentiments in the state, the visit of the two top leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to Kolkata days before the inauguration of the Ram Mandir is quite significant.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale reached Kolkata on a two-day trip to hold a series of meetings with the organisation’s senior functionaries in Bengal. They are also scheduled to meet BJP leaders to firm up the coordination strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, said a source.
Sources said that Bhagwat will meet former CBI officer Upen Biswas, who raised questions on the irregularities in recruitments in state-aided schools, the scam which landed former Education Minister and close Mamata Banerjee confidante Partha Chatterjee and a host of other Trinamool Congress leaders behind bars. After his retirement, Biswas joined the Trinamool Congress and won from Bagda in North 24-Parganas in the 2011 Assembly elections. He was the Minister for Backward Class Welfare in Mamata Banerjee’s Government from 2011 to 2016.
Dattatreya Hosabale will hold several organisational meetings during his visit. “He will give us a roadmap of the RSS’s role in Bengal on the day of the inauguration of Ram Mandir by Modi ji and thereafter,” said a state-level RSS karyakarta.
The Bengal BJP is also gearing up to launch a two-week-long door-to-door campaign in all districts from January 1, inviting people to the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22, and take the message of “Sabke Ram” (Ram belongs to all) to the villages.
“We will visit each of the households with ‘akshat’ (rice and kesar), haldi (turmeric), a photo of Lord Ram and an invitation for the consecration programme at Ayodhya,” said a Bengal BJP leader.
Teams have been deputed to perform pujas at local temples where “Sanatanis” will gather during the inauguration. “There is excitement among people about the consecration ceremony and the spirit was perceptible even during the Gita recital event. The kalash and photograph of the proposed temple have reached us from Ayodhya,” said the leader.
Reacting to the development, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said: “We respect Lord Ram, we offer pujas to him, but we have no links with the Ram who is the chairperson of BJP’s election committee.” He added: “They plan to use Lord Ram as their election committee chairperson for the next three-four months.”