BENGAL BJP LOOKS TO AUGMENT GROUND-LEVEL STRENGTH

To address this shortfall in numbers, the state BJP leadership has decided to induct members of other parties.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

With internal surveys indicating that the Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ground-strength is falling short of the requirement, the state leaders are looking to augment numbers by taking in workers from other parties. Internal estimates say that the BJP currently has enough karyakartas to man approximately 52,000 booths, while the Election Commission has announced that the total number of booths in the state for the 2024 general election will be 80,453.

To address this shortfall in numbers, the state BJP leadership has decided to induct members of other parties.

“Before the 2021 elections, during the presidentship of Dilip Ghosh and under the active guidance of Mukul Roy and Kailash Vijayvargiya, we inducted leaders and celebrities. While it got us short-term publicity, after the elections, many defected or cut off ties with our party, which badly affected our image and gave the Trinamool Congress an opportunity to ridicule us,” a senior party leader to The Sunday Guardian on condition of anonymity. “Even Mukul Roy himself returned to the Trinamool Congress after the elections,” he added.

Keeping in mind this experience, state party president Sukanta Majumdar and the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, have held meetings in which it has been decided that it is more necessary to induct ground-level workers and leaders, rather than go after “big names”, sources said.