MANOHAR LAL GIVES PEP TALK TO BJP PARTY WORKERS IN BENGAL

Union Minister and former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Wednesday gave a peptalk to Bharatiya Janata Party karyakartas who have been on the backfoot in West Bengal after the party put up an unexpectedly poor show in the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly by-elections held last week.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

He was in Kolkata to chair the Bengal BJP’s extended state committee meeting here on Wednesday to outline the party’s political strategy in the state in the wake of its poor performance in the general election and July 10 by-polls.

The meeting was significant since the party had called all district presidents, general secretaries, observers of Lok Sabha and Assembly segments, and mandal presidents in Calcutta to analyse the party’s failure and outline its next strategy.

The Bengal BJP has been on the back foot since the party won only 12 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls — six less than in the 2019 general elections — prompting many BJP leaders to accuse the current state leadership of failing to retain the party’s organisational strength that was built since 2017-18.