The meeting was attended by Sukanta Majumder, BJP state president who has been elevated to Modi’s Council of Ministers. (PTI File)
News18 has learnt that the BJP did not want to “introspect sitting in a room in Kolkata” and hence has decided to do so in all five organisational zones of Bengal — North Bengal, Nabadweep, Rahr Bengal, Howrah-Hoogly-Medinipur and Kolkata
The West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in its core group meeting on Saturday to assess the dismal performance in the state in the Lok Sabha elections, decided to hold more meetings to “find the reason”. The BJP’s tally of 18 seats dropped to 12, while it had set an ambitious target of 30 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats.
News18 has learnt that the BJP did not want to “introspect sitting in a room in Kolkata” and hence has decided to do so in all five organisational zones of Bengal — North Bengal, Nabadweep, Rahr Bengal, Howrah-Hoogly-Medinipur and Kolkata.
The Bengal BJP has decided that all five zones will hold separate meetings where Lok Sabha candidates concerned, their in-charges and all concerned assembly in-charges will be asked to be present, News18 has learnt. During each meeting, either BJP state president Sukanta Majumder, general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakrabarty or LoP Suvedu Adhikari may be present, depending on their schedule. Chakrabarty will oversee the entire exercise in the state.
The meeting was attended by Sukanta Majumder, BJP state president who has been elevated to Modi’s Council of Ministers, and his colleagues Santanu Thakur, in-charge Sunil Bansal and co-incharges Amit Malviya and Asha Lakhra, among others.
The focus of the meeting was slated to be Dilip Ghosh and Suvendu Adhikari, whose constant war of words, without naming each other, has brought discomfiture to the state unit. While Ghosh attended the meeting, Adhikari gave it a miss to meet victims of post-poll violence in Cooch Behar district in North Bengal — an area that saw former Union Minister for Home Nishith Pramanik lose to the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Adhikari claimed he visited Cooch Behar on the “directions of the central leadership”.
According to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) data, TMC received 45.76% of votes in West Bengal, while the BJP scored 38.73%. This gap ensured the TMC won 17 more Lok Sabha seats in the state and BJP lost six seats from its 2019 tally in Bengal.
The Lok Sabha result has also necessitated assembly by-poll in four seats in West Bengal — Ranaghat South, Raiganj, Bagga and Maniktala in Kolkata — on July 10. While both the TMC and Left front have named their candidates, the BJP is yet to name any. The BJP, sources say, discussed a “few names” for “all four seats” during this meeting, while settling for three names for each of these four assembly constituencies.
The BJP also discussed post-poll violence and how they plan to stand by their cadre in time of need. A BJP team constituted by party president JP Nadda to enquire about the status of cases of post-poll violence will reach Kolkata on Sunday.
Former Tripura CM Biplab Deb-led team will meet a few victims at Kolkata’s Maheshwari Bhawan. Sources say the BJP wants the focus to remain on Bengal alone on Sunday and Monday when the BJP fact-finding team will be crisscrossing the state.
