Sunil Bansal, a national general secretary of the BJP and its co-observer in Bengal, held a meeting with the party leaders of Darjeeling, Siliguri and Jalpaiguri as part of the party’s plans to strengthen the organisation through a series of meetings across Bengal ahead of panchayat polls.

Party insiders said Bansal asked the attendees, including MPs and MLAs, to start strengthening the BJP’s “mandal” (zonal) committees.

“He also told us that all the mandal committees should be formed by November 30 so that we can start working for the panchayat elections which is likely to be held by March next year,” said a source.

Similar meetings will be held over the next month or so as Team Bansal will visit the districts to energise the party ranks as part of preparations for the panchayat polls.

“In all, 19 such meetings will be held across the state.... In this region, two other meetings will be held in Malda and Raiganj. We began from here as north Bengal is our stronghold,” said a BJP source.

At the meeting in Siliguri, Bansal underscored that people from different walks of life should be brought into the party.

“We should approach students, teachers and academics and speak to them on various issues. There is a clear instruction to organise party supporters and bring them to party offices during Mann Ki Baat sessions,” the source added.

The saffron camp, which managed to consolidate support in north Bengal over the past three-four years and bag seven of eight Parliament seats and 30 of 54 Assembly seats, had to bite the dust at the civic polls earlier this year.

Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP president who was there at the meeting, claimed his party would do better at the rural polls. “Today’s BJP is not the same party that it was during the civic polls. We have changed a lot and will contest the panchayat polls with fresh vigour. None of us will leave an inch to Trinamul and other rivals,” he said.

On Sunday’s meeting, he said talks were held on organisational issues and on the upcoming rural polls.

The state BJP chief, speaking to newspersons, tried to clarify the party’s stand on the issue of statehood to prevent Trinamul from accusing them of advocating in favour of division of Bengal. “We want a united Bengal as was said by Syama Prasad Mukherjee. But we can’t undermine the grievances brewing in this region because of apathy and lack of development,” he said.

In the evening, Ananta Maharaj, who heads a faction of Greater Cooch Behar Peoples’ Association and is demanding statehood, reached the meeting venue with BJP MP Nisith Pramanik.

They met Bansal and some other leaders and spoke with them, said sources.