With an eye on the panchayat polls, the West Bengal unit of BJP has chalked out a detailed strategy on launching district-level protests against widespread corruption in the state soon after the conclusion of ‘Kali puja’ and ‘Bhai dhuj’, popular in the state as ‘Bhai Phota’.
Coming ahead of the three-tier 2023 panchayat polls, the move adheres to the party high-command’s instructions to scatter anti-state government movements on issues of corruption beyond the state capital of Kolkata.
Party sources said the detailed agitation will be initiated by conducting “march to district secretariats or district magistrate offices,” in all the districts of the state in lines of the party’s “march to state secretariat of Nabanna” on September 13, which the party’s central high- command has accepted to be a major success.
They further said that at least one party MP from the state and all the local MLAs from the district concerned will be leading the proposed “march to district secretariat” programmes from the forefront.
“Initially, it was planned that the district-level agitation programmes will start soon after the Durga Puja festival. However, later it was decided to initiate the same after the entire festive season is over considering the sentiments of the people of Bengal with Kali Puja and Bhai Phota,” a state committee member of the party said.
BJP state spokesman in West Bengal, Samik Bhattacharya said that corruption issues will definitely be the prime focus of campaign for the party for the panchayat elections next year. “The quantum of corruption at panchayat level has skyrocketed during the current regime. The people of the state are tired of watching huge cash recoveries every day. We will be reaching out to the people with our message of no compromise on the issue of corruption,” he said.
However, the leadership of the ruling Trinamool Congress does not want to give much importance to the proposed agitation programmes. Senior Trinamool Congress MLA, Tapas Roy said that organising mass movements needs a solid organisational base and mass leaders. “BJP neither has an organisational base in the state nor any mass leader. So, their plans would be repetitions of flop shows,” he said.