As the BJP kickstarted its preparations for the next year’s Assembly elections in West Bengal, the party leadership’s decision to overhaul the organisation, beginning with the appointment of over 1,000 mandal presidents, has led to protest by party workers in several districts. Last week, out of the total 1,280 mandals, the state BJP leadership appointed new presidents in over 1,000 mandals. Since then, party workers have opposed the party leadership’s decision and protested in several areas, including Bishnupur in Bankura, Dantan in Purba Medinipur, and Barwan in Murshidabad districts. They claimed the “chosen” mandal presidents “have no experience”.
Gangarampur MLA Satyendranath Roy went to social media to post against the selection of new mandal presidents in his Dakshin Dinajpur district. In a post, Roy wrote that he did not recognise the name of the mandal president from Gangarampur. “I have been an MLA for the last 10 years. So, I know everyone in my area. But I do not know this particular man,” he said, alleging that the names were “fixed” without any discussion with the respective MLAs. “Without doing so, the leadership is destroying the party,” said Roy.
Asked about the protest by party workers, state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said: “In a big party, such small things happen. If it is happening, it means more people are eager to become BJP leaders. That’s a good sign. That means the party is spreading across the state.” A senior leader of the state BJP committee, however, said that despite “minor protests in some areas”, the process of appointing new mandal chiefs went smoothly.
“There are some problems in some areas, but not more than 10. We announced the names for more than a thousand mandals. The last time we announced mandal presidents was in 2018, and we changed those names in 2021. Our workers protested in almost all districts then, and in 2021, some protesters came to the state headquarters to register their protest. This year, we were able to select names very smoothly,” the senior leader said.
“We are happy that the grassroots-level organisation is almost streamlined and it will help us in the upcoming Assembly elections,” the senior BJP leader added.
Sources in the party said that the appointment of mandal chiefs was the first step in overhauling the party unit ahead of the Assembly elections. “Gradually, all leadership, including district and state unit chiefs, may be changed… We are expecting that will also be done within a month or so,” another senior leader of the party said.
Incidentally, the BJP is due to elect a new party president for West Bengal as incumbent Majumdar was made Union minister in June last year after he was elected from Balurghat in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP’s decimation in the recent Assembly bypolls led to a section of the party leaders demanding a change in the state leadership and calling for fixing accountability. Sukanta Majumdar has especially come in the line of fire.
Some BJP leaders are pressing for a “full-time state party president” on the grounds that the former has been inducted as a Union minister. Senior BJP leader Tathagata Roy had said that the West Bengal BJP was a “tottering house” not because of its organisation but by the blind support of a section of the Hindu public. Former BJP MP Arjun Singh has also called for “proper leadership and booth-based work” to take on the TMC in the next Assembly polls due in about one-and-a-half years.
After losing in last year’s Lok Sabha elections, former state BJP president Dilip Ghosh had trained his gun at the state leadership, especially Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari. Sukanta Majumdar and Adhikari are also known to have strained ties.