Several MPs have started asking for ‘introspection’ into the state BJP’s functioning.
New Delhi: After the decimation of the BJP in Bengal’s civic body polls, voices from within the party are growing louder for a major overhaul of the organisation in order to keep the saffron party relevant in Bengal before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
BJP leaders, including several MPs, have started to make noises to revamp the party and to start immediate “introspection” into the functioning of the state BJP. Many leaders are also asking the Central BJP leadership to take charge of the party in Bengal and help restructure the organisation, which has gone into a “deep slumber” since the 2 May results of the West Bengal Assembly elections held last year.
BJP Member of Parliament from the Hooghly district in West Bengal said that the BJP’s Bengal unit needs “introspection” soon after the results to the 108 civic bodies of Bengal were declared on 2 March. Another BJP MP, Roopa Ganguly, also called for a rethink on the working of the BJP’s Bengal unit. Many others are talking behind closed doors of how the state leadership failed to galvanise a momentum for the party during this civic body polls.
The BJP state president Sukanta Mazumdar is also being questioned by many of his colleagues from the party. Since the appointment of Mazumdar as the state president, the BJP’s strength in Bengal has gone down. The party slipped from a 42% vote share to less than 12% vote share within a year. Mazumdar also failed to add any municipality into the kitty of the BJP, including that of the Kolkata Municipality.
BJP MPs and functionaries from Bengal also questioned state in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya and his absence from the ground since the last one year. They have also accused other observers like Amit Malviya and Arvind Menon of being virtually absent during this election. One BJP MP, who did not wish to be named, told The Sunday Guardian that the party’s organisation has gone into “hibernation” of “deep slumber” and that it does not care about what performance the party shows in the elections.
“It seemed the civic body polls were not even a priority for the BJP in Bengal. We did not see any large-scale campaign by the top leadership of the party. The candidate selection for the municipalities was also done half-heartedly. Many candidates who had the capability to win were not given tickets, even many MPs and MLAs did not campaign for the party. The state leadership lacks the fire in the belly to win elections in Bengal,” the MP said.
Many BJP district level leaders that this correspondent spoke to also said that the state leadership of the party “did not do anything to bring out our cadre that went silent post the 2 May Assembly election results last year”.
“The cadre that worked for us in the Assembly elections went completely silent because the state and the central leadership went silent when violence was being unleashed on them. They have no confidence in the party anymore. Most of our people have switched sides to the TMC and why not? When the party they worked for abandoned them at their darkest time, why would they work for such a party?” the BJP district leader said.
Some BJP functionaries from the party headquarters in Bengal also questioned the appointment of the district leaders and started to question their capabilities to run an organisation. Speaking to this correspondent, they blamed the state leadership of doing very little for the party in the last few months.
Some also complained about the absence of the party in-charge and observers from the ground during the election campaign. Many MLAs who were appointed as observers of different constituencies did not wish to move out of their constituencies as elections were ongoing even in their constituencies.
This appointment of BJP MLAs of one constituency as observer of a far-off municipality is being criticised both by BJP MLAs as well as senior functionaries.
Out of the 108 municipalities of Bengal that went to polls on 27 February, the BJP could not secure even a single of them, while the Left won one of the municipalities. The BJP in total won just 64 wards out of the 2,171 wards that went to polls for these 108 civic bodies.
The vote share of the BJP also slipped many points compared to what it secured just a year back, during the state assembly elections, (BJP vote share 42%). The BJP managed to secure just 12% of the total vote share, while the Left managed to get 14% vote share in this election. The TMC got over 63% of the vote share, while winning 102 of the 108 municipalities that went to polls earlier last week.
The BJP lost even in the party stronghold of Kanthi, Tamluk where BJP’s leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and his family controlled these municipalities for the last several decades. The BJP also could not secure even a single seat in the stronghold of Arjun Singh–Barrackpore and Bhatpara. Even in places like North Bengal, where the BJP was believed to be strong, the party has been decimated by the TMC.