The Bengal unit of the BJP will geo-tag the location of its grassroots workers in a bid to set up a watertight organisation, sources in the party said.
The move will be part of a multi-level verification process the party is undertaking to double-check the lists of booth committees that are submitted by district leaders.
The process of geo-tagging will involve adding geographic coordinates to the names and other details of members of the booths through software. This will ensure that the booth member actually exists and resides in the corresponding booth area.
“When someone goes to verify the booth committee physically, he will have to record the booth member’s details in software. He will be able to do so only within that booth area,” a BJP source said.
“The software is enabled in such a way that it will not function unless it matches the longitude and latitude of a specific booth.”
As a result, the existence of a certain booth worker will not only get recorded in pen and paper but also his presence at the booth he is assigned to will be endorsed technically.
The BJP has taken up the massive task of expanding its organisation to each of over 78,000 booths in the state. Each of its 42 organisational districts has been tasked with setting up a 25-member unit at the booths under their respective jurisdiction. Once done, they will send the details of the booth committees to the state.
A team from the state unit will visit these booths to corroborate the lists shared by the districts physically. During these visits, the scrutineer will have to feed the details of the booth committee into the software.
On one hand, the system will confirm the booth committee list shared by the district. It will also be proof that the person tasked with physically verifying the booths has actually done so.
The saffron camp wants to ensure that its organisation at the grassroots doesn’t only exist “on paper”, as was the case ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls, which the BJP lost in spite of campaign-trail claims of coming to power with “more than 200 seats”.
BJP’s minders for Bengal — Sunil Bansal and Mangal Pandey — have found out that earlier district leaders had often taken advantage of the fact that lists of committees they had submitted went unverified.
As a result, multiple mechanisms are being put in place to reduce such things.
“A similar system was followed nationally when our party had undertaken the booth sashaktikaran or strengthening drive. We are planning to do something similar,” state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said. He refused to reveal further details.
Digital rights activists had questioned the exercise since they believed that the drive appeared to be a scheme to collect the personal data of the citizens.
Several Bengal BJP leaders raised a similar concern of data misuse. “What happens if a booth worker quits the party in future? Their data will remain with the party. Also will the party develop this application indigenously? If not then who will do it? Whoever it is, can they be trusted with personal details?” a state office-bearer asked.
