BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha in Kolkata Friday. (Express photo)
A major outreach programme in the form of Rath Yatra and micro-management of party workers — these are among the measures the state BJP has decided upon as part of its efforts to reach the goal of 25 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections.
Addressing workers during the party’s executive meeting, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Friday said the party is considering next year’s general elections as the “semi-final match”. “We will not leave an inch to the TMC and there will be an equal fight,” he said.
He further said the BJP would capture power fully in the state in the 2021 Assembly elections, according to PTI.
“We must win and capture power in the state by defeating the Mamata Banerjee government,” he said.
The state executive meeting will conclude on Saturday.
Ghosh also described the Trinamool Congress as the party’s sole opponent in the state.
“The ruling party prevented our workers from forming panchayat boards in various places. About 250 of our workers were driven out of their villages and a reign of terror was created by the TMC post the rural polls. They have made it clear that BJP is their main adversary in Bengal and we are also saying that TMC is our sole opponent here,” he said.
Sources present in the meeting said a lot of impetus had been put on the proposed Rath Yatra in December-January.
“We have been asked to ensure booth-level participation in the yatra. The yatra will touch all Assembly constituencies of the state and it will be monitored minutely by Delhi. It will be a major reachout programme ahead of the polls,” said a senior BJP leader.
The leader also said the party had appointed a ‘palak’ or in-charge for every Lok Sabha constituency. Aside from election committees, sources said there would also be logistics committees in every constituency.
“Micro-management has to be done with the precision of a surgeon. The person in charge will have information at his/her fingertips as to which are the possible venues of meetings, and if a national leader such as Narendra Modi or Amit Shah comes to the venue, where would the helipad be and how easily the other paraphernalia can be arranged. Then the committee members should know where election materials such as flags, posters, hoardings would be stored safely and so on,” the leader said.
Asked about which seats the BJP was hopeful about, the leader said indications showed that North Bengal, Jangalmahal and Nadia were in favour of BJP.
‘Cong trying to stay afloat with CPM’
Meanwhile, Dilip Ghosh took a dig at the Congress and CPM, saying they were trying to stay afloat in the state with TMC’s help.
“Congress is trying its best to hold hands with TMC. The condition of CPM in Bengal is even worse. If Congress joins hands with CPM, it will bring doom to their fortunes. Now, BJP is the only alternative to TMC and that’s why our workers are being targeted. False cases are being lodged against them,” he said.