The rejig in West Bengal BJP comes ahead of the high-voltage state assembly elections scheduled in 2021.

West Bengal BJP: In a significant organisational shake-up in its ranks ahead of the Assembly elections in the state, the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has appointed Arjun Singh as one of its vice-presidents along with Subhash Sarkar. Both Arjun Singh and Subhash Sarkar are Lok Sabha MPs and their rise within the party comes as the BJP seeks to project fresh faces ahead of polls due next year.

The appointments are also expected to have a bearing on the civic body elections which could provide the BJP crucial insight into its position on the ground against Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.

While Arjun is a Lok Sabha MP from Barrackpore and defeated TMC’s heavy weight Dinesh Trivedi, Subhash won from Bankura, defeating TMC’s Subrata Mukherjee. Arjun Singh was a member of of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress before switching to BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Another BJP MP from Hooghly, Locket Chatterjee, has been given the charge of general secretary of the party’s state unit.

Fashion designer Agnimitra Paul has been given the post of women morcha president. Khogen Murmu has been made the party’s scheduled caste morcha president. Murmu was in the CPI(M) for 40 years before his defection to the BJP.

The party has shunted Chandra Kumar Bose, grandnephew of freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Chandra Kumar was the vice president in the Bengal BJP unit. It is not clear why he has been sidelined.

The state BJP now has 12 vice-presidents and five general secretaries.

The 12 vice-presidents are Subhash Sarkar, Bishwapriya Roy Chowdhury, Pratap Banerjee, Rajkamal Pathak, Bapi Mitra, Ritesh Tiwari, Jay Prakash Mazumdar, Arjun Singh, Anindya Banerjee, Dipen Pramanik, Bharati Ghosh and Mafuza Khatoon.

The five BJP state general secretaries are Locket Chatterjee, Sayantan Basu, Jyotirmoy Mahato, Sanjay Singh and Rathindranth Basu.

Dilip Ghosh, who was re-elected as the president of the BJP’s Bengal unit. He said that the new committee has been formed taking necessary consents from the BJP’s Central leadership.

“We have given importance to those who have large-scale acceptance in the masses,” he said.

The rejig in West Bengal BJP comes ahead of the high-voltage state assembly elections scheduled in 2021. The BJP is hopeful of a good show in the elections given that it won 18 of 42 seats in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.