Central and state BJP leaders formed a 80-member committee comprising their party colleagues in different tiers in the districts of north Bengal on Friday to carry out various functions related to the state elections.

Named “Bidhan Sabha Sangjojok” (Assembly level facilitators), its members will be assigned with specific responsibilities, which include arrangements for rallies and meetings, legal and administrative issues ahead of the elections and social media campaigns.

According to party insiders, the committee will independently function across the region, in consonance with the district committees and the state committee. Each sangjojok or facilitator will have some responsibility or other, depending on their abilities.

“While some will be engaged to make arrangements for rallies and meetings, others will have the responsibility of obtaining permission from the police and administration for such political activities and take up legal matters. There will be some others who will keep a tab on social networking sites and will make pertinent posts on a series of issues,” said an insider.

On Friday, central leaders like Shiv Prakash, Arvind Menon and Ratnakar, along with state leaders like Sayantan Bose and party MPs Raju Bista and Sukanta Majumdar, spoke on the need of this new 80-member committee and its functions.

A BJP leader in Siliguri said the party was regularly organising party meetings for north Bengal which has 54 Assembly seats for past few weeks andworking on a comprehensive plan ahead of the polls, which include creation of multiple committees with different responsibilities.

“Also, there are indications that central leaders and prominent leaders from other states would be brought in, one such leader for each constituency,” said a source.

Recently, it was decided that MPs would be roped in micro-level campaigns and bistaraks or special observers for each Assembly constituency would keep tabs on whether work was being done properly and send feedback to the state leadership.

BJP has been focussing in north Bengal in a steadfast manner, particularly because it won seven out of eight parliamentary seats last year. After Lok Sabha elections, it was found that the BJP was ahead in 38 out of 54 Assembly segments, which was much better than its performance in the 2016 Assembly elections.

In the last Assembly polls, BJP had won only two seats (Baishnabnagar in Malda and Madarihat in Alipurduar) from the region.

A political observer pointed out that another reason for the BJP’s north Bengal impetus was Morcha leader Bimal Gurung’s decision to sever ties with the party and extend support to Mamata Banerjee and Trinamul. “There are around six Assembly seats where votes of the Gorkha population decide the results. Since 2009, BJP has enjoyed Gurung’s support but now both factions of the Morcha (Gurung and Binay Tamang) are with Trinamul. This seems to be another reason why BJP is seeking to assess the situation on the ground and explore options to retain their support in these seats,” the observer added.