Kolkata: BJP leaders in a fix as 17,000 party workers seek post poll violence compensation

Whilst the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already stepped up its ante against the ruling Trinamool Congress on the issue of post-poll violence, around 17,000 applications have landed with the party's office seeking compensation in post-poll violence cases.

Kolkata:The BJP unit of West Bengal is currently facing a unique situation. Whilst the party has already stepped up its ante against the ruling Trinamool Congress on the issue of post-poll violence, around 17,000 applications have landed with the party's office for seeking compensation in post-poll violence cases. The state BJP leaders are now in a fix over how to proceed with such a barrage of applications.

State BJP sources said that the flood of applications started arriving since May 2. “Most of these applications are related to compensation. Already families of the murder victims in case of this post- poll violence have been provided compensation cheques by the BJP leadership. However, there are applications for compensation in cases of fracture of limbs, destruction of houses and spoiling of crops in the fields. And all these applications have been sent to the state BJP president, Dilip Ghosh,” said a BJP leader.

BJP state general secretary, Sayantan Basu told ETV Bharat that since May 2 till date, there had been barrage of applications. “We are trying our best to be with our grassroots level party workers. Till now, 182 BJP workers have been reportedly killed. All of them have been provided with compensation cheques. But still the state headquarter is flooded with applications. We are forwarding the copies of these applications to our high command in New Delhi for their consideration,” Basu said.

State BJP sources said that there is a requirement of around Rs 3.5 crore to address each application in financial terms. “We have already asked the high command in New Delhi to release the funds. However, we are yet to receive the green signal from the high command in this regard,” he said.

Now the question that arises is that whether it is really possible to evaluate each application and do justice to each of them. The state BJP leaders are really puzzled on this issue since this is very critical in view of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The state BJP leadership has to keep its organizational network intact and also boost the morale of the party workers. So evaluating each and every application has become extremely crucial.

Party sources further said that the number of applications is also flooding the district party offices in all the 39 organizational districts of the saffron camp. “A lot of such applications are being forwarded to the state headquarters in Kolkata. But the state committee is not really in a position to reply to them,” a senior party leader said.