East Burdwan (West Bengal) : With Lok Sabha Polls fast approaching, all political parties are busy activating their workers in West Bengal. The BJP has placed special emphasis on strengthening the booth committees. The focus has turned on two Lok Sabha constituencies in East Burdwan district — Burdwan Durgapur and Burdwan East, where the saffron party suffered heavy reverses in 2019.
In these two constituencies, the local BJP leaders and activists claim that the condition of the booth committees is pathetic but the district leadership gives a different version. They have taken a new approach to strengthen the booth committee as demanded by the top leadership. They don't want to make the approach public though.
According to BJP sources, the work of forming the booth committees was started by the party right after the last 2021 assembly elections. The party directive was to form a committee of ten people per booth. The quest for booth workers started after last Durga Puja. BJP All-India President JP Nadda also set a deadline for finalising the booth committees.
Party sources revealed that there is problem in not only the two Lok Sabha constituencies of East Burdwan district but also several districts of South Bengal. The report sent by the state leadership to the central leadership has admitted organisational weakness in some places, sources said. As a result, how to fill the deficiency is also being worked out.
The disgruntled BJP leaders of the East Burdwan district, however, say that their party could not reach every booth in the district. The same scenario was witnessed during the panchayat elections. The state leadership has to face a plethora of questions as to why the booth level voters could not be reached. But the way the district leadership is trying to go to the polls with new workers by ignoring the old workers will only harm the party, sources said.
Groupism has also increased in various areas. As a result, no matter how much the district leadership demands, they will not be able to reach all the booths in the district. As a result they will send a false report to save their respective groups. According to them, the district leadership could not exploit the issue of how the common people of West Bengal are unhappy with the ruling party after the Sandeshkhali incident. This time there is an opportunity for door-to-door public relations but the BJP district leadership failed to do so.
District BJP sources said that after Trinamool Congress grabbed power again in 2021, persecution of BJP workers started. Several incidents including murders of BJP workers, vandalism of their houses and attacks on families took place. Since then the morale of the party workers was broken. Most of those workers have almost become inactive.
West Bengal Trinamool Congress spokesperson Prasenjit Das said, "We have said from the beginning that all the reports that BJP sends to the central committee are fake. Earlier in the elections it was seen that the names and phone numbers of the booth committee workers they sent are non-existent. They have no organisation. They are asking people for votes by playing religion card. BJP survives on the strength of money and CBI and ED. They have no existence in Bengal in elections."
BJP district president Abhijit said, "BJP has no aggrieved group. Such is the system of the party that there is a thread from Delhi to the booth which is sufficient and it is verified. So we have no worries about the team. The organisation is strong enough. But one hundred percent is not possible because there is an atmosphere of fear in West Bengal. So many people are not willing to come out publicly even if they work. Party workers are especially worried after the assembly elections."
