Patna: Upset over the West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ‘exaggerated’ projections of its strength, party chief J.P. Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah have told the state unit to work on the ground first ahead of the coming panchayat elections, ThePrint has learnt.
The party high command is also thought to be concerned about members of the Left cadre — many of whom had previously shifted their support to the BJP in an attempt to defeat Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) — apparently having returned to their parent parties in the municipal elections held earlier this year.
Party sources said that according to an internal report by BJP national general secretary Sunil Bansal — prepared at Nadda’s behest to gauge the organisational strength of the state unit — the BJP has no presence at the booth level in some places and its organisational preparedness for the panchayat polls, expected to be held in March 2023, leaves much to be desired.
A party leader confirmed that Bansal’s report contrasts with one the state unit itself has presented to the central leadership. “Bansal has flagged several anomalies in the state unit’s report on its booth presence,” he said.
On the other hand, Jyotirmay Singh Mahato, a BJP MP from the state, emphasised the party’s performance in the 2019 general election. “Our booth structure may not be strong in some places, but one also doesn’t win 18 Lok Sabha seats without a strong organisation in place. We will hold at least 100 public meetings ahead of the panchayat elections, which will be fought on local issues and TMC’s corruption.”
Nadda met party leaders Monday evening, while Shah met state unit chief Sukanta Majumdar and leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari in Parliament Tuesday. They’re learnt to have told the state leaders to first make the organisation robust and engage with the cadre regularly through meetings at the local level and by using “innovative” methods.
One of the MPs present at Nadda’s meeting said, “His message was that we need to be seen as the opposition and not just in the media…(we were told to) prepare the organisation and hold agitational activities at mandal level as small meetings are more effective. Without continuous activity, the cadre will be demoralised.”
Union minister Subhas Sarkar, who is from West Bengal, told ThePrint, “We know how the TMC resorted to violence during the (2018) panchayat elections. He (Nadda) told us to be present on the ground to counter such tactics. We have been told to win the 24 seats we lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and many Union ministers have been deputed to help us achieve that.” The 24 seats comprise 22 won by the TMC and two by the Congress in 2019.
Challenge from the Left
Bengal is crucial for the BJP, which won 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and 77 out of 294 seats in the 2021 assembly election.
Ahead of the panchayat elections, the TMC has launched the Chalo Gram campaign, in which the party’s women workers fan out to villages to spread the word about state government schemes for women. For its part, the BJP hopes to counter Mamata’s appeal and secure a firmer foothold among women voters with the help of its panchayat poll in-charge, Debshri Choudhary.
But in addition to its perceived lack of energy on the ground, the BJP state unit also faces problems such as infighting — which has led to leaders such as Arjun Singh and Babul Supriyo leaving it for the TMC — and a renewed challenge from the Left.
In the urban local body polls held in February, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) secured control of one municipal body while the BJP couldn’t win any. According to State Election Commission data, the BJP secured 62 seats in all while the CPI(M) won 47. The TMC, meanwhile, won 102 of the 108 municipalities and 1,853 out of 2,254 seats.
Another MP who attended Nadda’s meeting told ThePrint, “In the urban local body polls, some of the vote shifted to the Left, which is one of our worries. The CPI(M) cadre is active on the ground and the panchayat elections come as a test for us before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The traditional Left voters can move to any party to defeat the TMC. It is those we have to watch out for and not lose that space.”
However, party vice-president Dilip Ghosh said, “The Left gaining traction happened in some wards but it will not happen in the Lok Sabha election as the BJP is the only party to counter the TMC.”
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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