40% of sitting members may be replaced; many new and young faces may be inducted.
New Delhi: The Bengal unit of the BJP is likely to witness a major reshuffle after the festive season, with a large number of its present sitting members of the state committee likely to face the axe and many new and young faces inducted in the new committee.
According to Bengal BJP sources, at least 30-40% of the sitting state committee members are likely to be replaced and the party is going to give young faces a chance to lead the party into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Sources also said that the party is considering entrusting leaders with strong RSS background into key positions in Bengal, given that there have been strong reports of factionalism and a “cold war” between the new and the old guards of the party in the state.
Dr Sukanta Mazumdar, the newly appointed chief of the BJP’s Bengal unit, is also a man who was brought into mainstream politics from the RSS in 2019. He had contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Balurghat Parliamentary constituency and won. Dr Mazumdar was appointed as the president of Bengal BJP in September this year, after replacing Dilip Ghosh, who had held the post for almost six long years.
Sources within the BJP have told this correspondent that Dr Mazumdar is likely to replace many prominent faces who have held on to important positions for a long time, but have failed to deliver any results for the party. Some of the leaders who are likely to be replaced from the BJP’s Bengal State Committee are Raju Banerjee, Bharati Ghosh, Joy Prakash Mazumdar, among others, who presently hold the post of Vice President in BJP’s Bengal unit.
A host of General Secretaries of the party are also likely to be replaced. Sources from the BJP have said that, apart from Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato, a BJP MP from Purulia, all the other general secretaries, who include leaders like Sayantan Basu, Locket Chatterjee, Rathin Bose and Sanjay Singh are likely to be removed.
New and young faces like that of Debjit Sarkar (RSS background, former youth president of Bengal BJP), Debashree Chaudhuri (RSS background, MP and former Union Minister), Subrata Thakur (MLA and influential Matua figure), Tushar Kanti Ghosh (of RSS), among many other such leaders, are most likely to find a prominent place in the new state committee of the Bengal BJP.
“The state committee of the party is long waiting for a rejig. There are leaders within the state committee who have failed to deliver and prove their mettle in the last election. The state unit is so rife with factionalism that it has cost the party election after election. Some of the leaders who are in the committee currently have not been able to win even a single election. The BJP in Bengal needs fresh faces with strong commitment and not like those who have come for their personal goals. The new president will form his team and we are all hopeful that it will be a strong team that can resurrect the BJP once again in the state,” a senior BJP leader from Bengal said.
After the formation of the new state committee, a majority of the 39 organisational districts of the BJP are also likely to see a major rejig. At least 20 district presidents are likely to be changed within the end of this month.
The senior BJP leader quoted above also said that the overhaul of the district committees and its presidents will be done keeping in mind the upcoming municipal elections in Bengal. Bengal has been awaiting elections in at least 100 civic bodies for the last one year.
This major reshuffle will come in the backdrop of the BJP losing the West Bengal Assembly elections held earlier last year and also the subsequent by-elections held in the state last week, apart from the fact that the party is constantly facing the issue of factionalism and internal clashes within the leaders.