Bengal BJP plans revival ahead of panchayat polls

NEW DELHI: Following the Durga Puja and Diwali celebrations that lasted almost a month in Bengal, the Bengal BJP unit has now tasked all its members to focus on the upcoming Panchayat elections, which is just months away and the party is hoping to revive itself during these elections, keeping in mind the upcoming crucial 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Sources in Bengal BJP said that the district units have been asked to prepare a list of blocks in every organisational district of the party and identify influential leaders who could be able to garner support and vote for the party. Bengal in-charge and senior BJP leader Sunil Bansal would also be visiting the state sometime next month to take stock of the party ahead of the Panchayat elections. Other in-charges of the party in Bengal, like Mangal Pandey and Amit Malviya, would also be holding meetings with different district units of the BJP in Kolkata in the coming days.
The BJP has already declared a core committee of the state unit, which includes senior leaders like Dilip Ghosh, state president Sukanta Mazumdar, Leader of the opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, as well as Union Ministers and MPs like Shantanu Thakur, Nisith Paramanik, Shubash Sarkar, and John Barla. Other senior leaders like Locket Chatterjee, Manoj Tigga (Chief Whip, Bengal Assembly), Debashree Chaudhuri, Agnimitra Paul have found place in the core committee.
A high-level meeting of the newly constituted core committee of Bengal BJP is also likely to take place in the coming week. All the senior leaders, including Mangal Pandey, Sunil Bansal, Amit Malviya, and Asha Lakra, are likely to attend the meeting where the BJP’s next strategies for the Panchayat elections will be deliberated.
Sources within the BJP also indicated that Bansal and Pandey have so far not been “very happy” with the working of the Bengal BJP and that despite repeated attempts to revive the Bengal unit, the state unit has not been able to do much in the state so far. “The core committee was there formulated in Bengal where important decisions would be taken collectively. Tasks would be chalked out for each leader and the BJP at the Centre is determined to revive the party in Bengal,” a source within the BJP from Bengal told The Sunday Guardian.
The Bengal BJP is also planning to hold a show of strength march in Kolkata sometime next month with having the Yuva Morcha of the party as its face ahead of the Panchayat elections and galvanise the cadre in different parts of the state. The BJP is also hoping to be back on the corruption issue as one of its main agenda during the Panchayat elections. TMC’s Cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee had been booked by the Enforcement Directorate for corruption in the Teachers’ Recruitment in Bengal, while TMC’s heavyweight and Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal is under arrest by the CBI for his alleged role in the coal and cattle smuggling cases.
The Panchayat elections of 2018 was marred with violence, leading to the loss of more than 10 lives, while several seats went uncontested with the opposition alleging that the ruling Trinamool Congress restricted opposition candidates to even file their nominations. The BJP is hoping to curtail the violence in these Panchayat elections and revive itself by putting up a strong fight against the TMC. The Panchayat elections in the state are expected to be held in March 2023 and would be a precursor to the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.