Other party aims are to reach out to Pasmanda Muslims, strengthen connections with party workers and end infighting.
NEW DELHI: The West Bengal BJP’s crucial core committee meeting held last month has set out sharp focus for the party, keeping in mind the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 and the Panchayat elections in the state just months away. The message from the meeting for the party was to “expose” the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government on corruption, reach out to Pasmanda Muslims, strengthen connections with party workers and to end infighting.
Sources present in the meeting said that the party, for the first time, deliberated on reaching out to the Muslim community in Bengal as the party has realised that without the support of this community, it would become difficult for the party to make a dent into the bastion of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee.
The party has asked the leadership of the Bengal BJP to reach out to the Pasmanda community in Bengal in every booth and help them understand the good works done by the BJP and the Modi government at the Centre and to allay the fears of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) “being spread by the TMC”.
This outreach holds a lot of importance in Bengal since Muslims form Mamata Banerjee’s core support base. Pasmanda, or socially and economically backward Muslims, are in a majority in Bengal. Reaching out to them and convincing them that the BJP is not an anti-Muslim party is part of the party’s national agenda.
The core committee meeting held in Durgapur on 21 and 22 January this year was chaired by BJP’s national General Secretary Sunil Bansal, in-charge for West Bengal Mangal Pandey and co-incharge Amit Malviya, along with 24 members of the state core committee, consisting of the state president, Sukanta Mazumdar, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, General Secretary (Organisation) Amitava Chakraborty, all the Union Ministers from West Bengal and other senior leaders. The 24-member core committee for West Bengal was declared in October last year and has been entrusted with taking crucial and important decisions for the party. The meeting also deliberated and formulated strategies to take on the Mamata Banerjee government on the issues of “corruption” and the alleged “scams” that have marred the reputation of the Bengal government.
According to sources present in the meeting, ministers from the Bengal BJP have been asked to get documentary evidence and information from their respective departments and ministries to expose the Bengal government on the issue of corruption. Suvendu Adhikari has been taking on the issue of corruption of the Bengal government for some time now and the ministers have been asked to assist and help Adhikari with evidence of alleged corruption in the PM AWAS Yojana scheme, mid-day meal scheme and also on the NREGA job card scam that has rocked the Bengal government.
The Central leaders of the BJP has also instructed the state unit of the BJP to build pressure on the Mamata Banerjee government by hitting the streets with protest against the “corruption” of the government. Earlier, Amit Shah, Union Home Minister, during his meeting with the Bengal unit, had also instructed party workers in Bengal to take to the streets and act as an “opposition” party to bring to the notice of the general public of Bengal the “massive corruption” in several departments of the state government and the TMC.
Sources also said that Central BJP leadership for long had been wanting to end the infighting within the BJP, but have not been able to achieve much success in this sphere. “However, Sunil Bansalji had given clear and strict instructions to all the members of the core committee to act in tandem with all the leaders of the state and sing in the same tune. Any differences within the party leaders would not be tolerated and have also said that strict actions would be taken against leaders who indulge in factionalism,” a senior leader of the BJP present in the core committee meeting told The Sunday Guardian.
However, the meeting was also marred with controversies arising out of infighting where several leaders complained to Sunil Bansal and Mangal Pandey about non-cooperation from the state leadership. Some Bengal BJP leaders also complained of “autocracy” and lack of democracy in decision making within the Bengal BJP state leadership, to which Bansal had said that he would personally oversee these matters and help address them.
According to sources present in the meeting, Sunil Bansal and Mangal Pandey were also angry with the state leadership for presenting a “fake and fabricated report” on the booth committee of the party to them. While addressing this issue, Bansal had reportedly scolded a couple of Bengal BJP leaders for presenting names of such persons as booth committee heads who did not even exist or were with the TMC.
“Some of the district leaders had sent reports of booth committees which did not even exist on the ground. Bansalji had said that he had called up on some of the numbers that were listed against names of booth committee heads who told Bansalji that either they were with the TMC or their name was not what was given in the list that was presented to him,” the BJP leader quoted above said. The Sunday Guardian had also reported on 24 December last year about how the Bengal BJP had presented “fabricated report on the organisational capabilities of the party” to the Central BJP and later exposed by Sunil Bansal–the reported titled “‘Fabricated’ reports: Bengal BJP on Shah-Nadda radar”.
In the core committee meeting, it has also been decided that the BJP in Bengal would make a renewed reach out programme to all party workers and bring them back to the party fold. It has also instructed party workers to develop a strategy to manage the upcoming elections.