RANCHI: One-and-a-half-years after the 2021 Assembly polls, BJP leaders in-charge of West Bengal are going to hold meetings with the saffron camp’s foot soldiers in districts shortly. Leaders like Sunil Bansal and Mangal Pandey will set out on districts visit from November and hold meetings with the party’s Mandal presidents and district in-charges.
Sources in the BJP said the decision of meeting with the lower-rung functionaries was taken after the saffron camp’s high command found ‘exaggerated’ reports on party’s strength in ground reality to hide the real picture of the organisational strength.
“Since the party’s unimpressive performance in the last year’s Assembly polls, the national leadership left the state without attending a single meeting with the grassroot level functionaries of the party fearing to face discontent. Many BJP leaders across the state expressed their discontent in public over the issue of fielding new comers as candidates in the Assembly polls before and after the electoral exercise. A large section of them turned inactive after the leadership of the party did not pay heed to their discontent,’’ said a BJP leader in Kolkata.
The high-command of the party recently sought a feed-back about the organisational strength of the BJP ahead of the panchayat elections slated to be held next year. ‘’Based on the inputs from districts, the state committee submitted a report which was opposite to the actual picture in ground reality. For an example, the report claimed to have strong organisational set-up in booth level. But actually, we have no presence in many booths,’’ admitted the leader.
Sources in the BJP said, Bansal and Pande started communicating with Mandal presidents and came to know about the poor strength of the party in lower level and the exaggerated report.Bansal will start holding meeting with district functionaries from November 6 and Pandey will meet Mandal in-charges from November 22. They will hear the discontent of the functionaries in districts and give them a roadmap to strengthen the organisation,’’ said another BJP leader.
‘Local leaders will get chance to express displeasure’
A Mandal president said leaders like him will now get a chance to express their displeasure in front of the higher leadership. ‘’Since the last year’s Assembly elections, the party’s district activities used to be directed from the glass-house in Kolkata. This is the first time, leaders like Bansal and Pandey will be meeting us. We will highlight the real picture of the party’s strength in the grassroots,’’ he added.
