The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday announced the formation of a 15-member election management committee to oversee Lok Sabha campaign in West Bengal. The party announced this on the day Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda came to Kolkata to take stock of the readiness of the State unit. The BJP is targeting to win 35 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in the coming polls. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP had set a target to win 22 seats and bagged 18.
The election management committee comprises 10 Bengal BJP leaders along with the four Central leaders who would supervise the electoral battle. Both Amit Shah and Nadda are members of this committee. Interestingly, the name of Anupam Hazra, the only representative of the State in J.P. Nadda’s national committee who holds the rank of national secretary, does not figure in this list.
The core members of the committee are Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda, Satish Dhond, state party chief Sukanta Majumdar, MP and former state president Dilip Ghosh, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, Rahul Sinha, Amitabh Chakraborty, Satish Dhaund, Mangal Pandey and Asha Lakra.
The committee also has five general secretaries, including MP Locket Chatterjee, MLA from Asansol South Agnimitra Paul, Jagannath Chatterjee, Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato and Deepak Burman.
There are 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal. In 2019, the Trinamool Congress won 22 seats but faced stiff competition from the BJP, which won 18 seats. The remaining two seats went to the Congress.
On Tuesday, Shah visited Gurdwara Bara Sikh Sangat in Jorasanko in north Kolkata and Kalighat temple, following which, he, along with BJP president J.P. Nadda held a meeting with the core committee of the party’s Bengal unit.
The two leaders also met with the BJP social media volunteers’ team in the National Library. Sources said that members of a social management agency based in Mumbai were introduced to the Bengal social media team.
The crucial visit of the top BJP leaders comes at a time when the party is looking to fortify its organisational machinery ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Internal discord and defections have marred the BJP following the announcement of the 2021 Assembly election results.
Former Union Minister Babul Supriyo, party MP Arjun Singh, and six legislators, including national vice-president Mukul Roy, have defected to the Trinamool Congress since the 2021 Assembly polls.
In the 2021 elections, the Trinamool Congress secured a resounding victory for the third consecutive term, winning 215 Assembly seats, while the BJP secured 77 seats.
BJP won 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which was one of the best performances of the party in Bengal till now. Therefore, it is a challenge for the party this time to repeat the result.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Trinamool Congress’ youth wing conducted a rally in every block and town in the State in protest against the alleged derogatory remarks made by the BJP State president Majumdar on Swami Vivekananda, demanding an apology from him and Amit Shah and to pay tributes to Swami Vivekananda.
In reply, Majumdar said his comments were twisted by the Trinamool Congress to peddle falsehood and deflect attention from its failure to stop the leak of Teachers’ Eligibility Test question paper on Sunday.
A video on Sunday went viral in which Majumdar was seen saying: “Bengal had been the cradle of the Bhakti movement. Bengal had espoused Sanatan dharma for ages but got derailed from the track for some time due to the Leftists. Those who rate football game higher than Gita are all Leftist products, they prove a little learning is a dangerous thing. Bengal would now follow the right path which starts from today (December 24, when a mass-reading of the Gita was organised in Kolkata).
On Monday, Majumdar told reporters that he had meant “present-day Leftists and the TMC should not teach us about the ideals of Swamiji”. “I did not indicate Swami Vivekananda. How can I? If you listen to my comments in the video you
will see I said Leftists of today. TMC is trying to do politics and misleading people,” he said.