With Late Night Meet with Bengal MPs Over 2023 Panchayat Elections, BJP Taking No Chances for 2024 LS Polls

Last Updated: December 20, 2022, 09:42 AM IST

With nearly 70 MLAs in the state, the BJP hopes to better its performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as compared to 2019 in which it secured 18 of the 42 seats in West Bengal.
(PTI File Photo)

BJP president JP Nadda held meet with all state MPs Monday night. West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said Debasree Chaudhuri will oversee the Panchayat poll preparations… BJP is hoping to improve its tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls by securing more seats from Bengal

With an eye to improving BJP’s tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal and preparing for the upcoming Panchayat polls, party president JP Nadda held a meeting Monday night with all members of Parliament from the state.

West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, who also attended the meeting, said it was purely organisational with discussions on the 2023 Panchayat and 2024 Lok Sabha elections at the core of it.

He also informed that Debasree Chaudhuri is the in charge of panchayat polls committee and will oversee the preparations. “We have Panchayat elections in 2023. Last elections, there was bungling, and goons entered the poll booths. There was so much violence. We have briefed Nadda ji on this,” Majumdar said.

He further said the party will protest outside the offices of Block Development Officers (BDOs) and mobilise the cadre.

“In Bengal, there are no democratic values. Our karyakartas will give befitting reply to those who will try to hamper the process,” added Majumdar.

Sources further said the infighting at the Panchayat level within the Trinamool cadre too was discussed in the meeting.

Shantanu Thakur, Union minister and BJP MP from West Bengal, who also attended the meeting, said, “What we could do during post poll violence is what we discussed and how we could rally the support for the party is what was discussed.”

The meeting holds significance as it was held just days after Union Home minister Amit Shah met the top brass in West Bengal.

With nearly 70 MLAs in the state, the BJP hopes to better its performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as compared to 2019 in which it secured 18 of the 42 seats in West Bengal.

Others who attended the meeting were West Bengal in charge Sunil Bansal and co-in charge Amit Malviya, along with Suvendu Adhikari, leader of opposition in the state assembly, besides all BJP MPs.

When asked about Panchayat poll violence and whether the cadre is demotivated, a senior BJP leader said, “At panchayat elections, people work and handle goons themselves as it is their polls. They are directly influenced by the decisions taken at the panchayat level. They have seen how one group of TMC got houses under government schemes and how many have got work through job cards. The resentment is palpitating.”

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