BJP chief in Bengal to boost party’s rural election plan
BJP national secretary Amit Shah pulled up the party’s Bengal leadership during a closed-door meeting with office bearers in Kolkata on Monday.
It was the first day of his threeday tour of Kolkata to prepare the party’s blueprint for the panchayat elections scheduled in 2018. According to sources, the state leadership complained about Trinamool Congress’ ‘strong arm tactics’, blaming it for failing to spread the organisations roots according to his expectations.
“Shah did not buy the argument and remarked that he would prefer to listen to ‘stories of resistance’ rather than unending complains of ‘ruling party’s use of money and muscle power’,” said a leader who was present in the meeting.
Apart from office bearers of the state committee, presidents and general secretaries of all district units were asked the attend the meeting. Over the next couple of days, he will also meet senior RSS organisers.
“Shah also expressed unhappiness over the progresses made during Booth Chalo Abhiyan and Vistarak Yojna that had been taken up by the party on a national scale,” a BJP leader said.
There are 77,411 booths in Bengal but the party did not manage to reach even half of them, sources in the party said.
The Vistarak Yojna ended nationally on June 23 but the Bengal unit was asked to continue till July because the state lagged behind in reaching out to voters. During these two programmes, BJP organisers were asked to reach out to people with the benefits of the union government’s various schemes.
“If BJP has to project itself as the main opposition party in Bengal ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it has to start with the panchayat elections. Poor result in the rural polls will adverse impact the party’s prospects in the Lok Sabha elections,” a BJP leader said.
Shah’s scheduled meeting with RSS functionaries is also considered crucial, because BJP in Bengal heavily relies on Sangh’s organisation.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh was a senior RSS pracharak and has brought in a number of sangh functionaries. “Shah is scheduled to meet senior RSS leaders on Wednesday morning, before meeting mediapersons in the afternoon,” a BJP leader said.
On Tuesday, apart from meeting BJP leaders, Shah will also meet industrialists.