With just a year left for the Lok Sabha elections, Bengal BJP has decided to overhaul its district-level organisational network in West Bengal. The state party president and MP, Sukanta Majumdar, had already indicated this earlier. During his recent visit to Delhi to meet the BJP’s former national president and Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, Mr Majumdar had mentioned: “Organizational reshuffle is a continuous process in our party. Currently, it is happening at the Mandal level, and after that, it will be carried out at the district level. It may also extend to the state level.”

On Sunday morning, Mr Majumdar announced a new organisational structure for the state unit of the BJP, which will undertake party activities for the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state ahead of next year’s general elections. “Right now, our party has 42 district organisation committees for the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. However, in the overhauled process, we might have two organisation district committees for one Parliamentary constituency, and in selected cases, two organisation district committees might be merged into one,” informed a member of the party’s state committee in West Bengal.

Currently, Darjeeling Lok Sabha is the only exception where a single Lok Sabha comes under two organisation district committees, namely Darjeeling (plains) and Darjeeling (hills). On the other hand, three Lok Sabha districts in Murshidabad district, namely Berhampore, Jangipur, and Murshidabad, are managed by two organisation district committees, namely Murshidabad (North) and Murshidabad (South), thus balancing the numbers of Lok Sabha seats and organisation district committees. The BJP leader pointed out that under the previous district organisation committee system, the BJP managed to increase its tally to 18 in 2019 from just two in 2014.

“This year, the central leadership has set a target for the state committee to double the figure to 36. The state committee is in agreement with the central leadership; going somewhere near to the target will not be possible unless the district-level organization is strengthened. So we have decided to overhaul the organisation district committees,” the state committee member said. Although refusing to spell out the exact parameters of such overhaul, the party leader said that probably the member base under each organisation district committee and the performance of the committee concerned might be the deciding factors for overhauling.

“The final blueprint for such overhauling will be prepared by this month, and once the process is completed, the overhauled organisation district committees will be given their respective assignments, keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” he said. One major assignment for the overhauled committees will be to organise at least one mega community Durga Puja in the area under it during the forthcoming festive season.