Mangal Pandey, a central BJP leader in charge of the party in Bengal, purportedly reprimanded several office-bearers of the state unit and asked one of them to leave a closed-door meeting on Sunday as he was disappointed with the affairs in the organisation.
Pandey was present at the meeting along with Sunil Bansal, another BJP minder for the state, at the party’s Salt Lake office.
According to sources, Amitava Roy, who is in charge of the BJP’s Nabadwip organisational zone, purportedly appeared unprepared and was fumbling when he was asked to apprise the central leaders of the party’s affairs in his area.
"Annoyed by Roy’s response, Pandey asked him to leave the room and return when he was better prepared. Amitavada left quickly. He went out and rearranged his reports and came back sometime later,” said a BJP functionary present at the meeting.
“Mangalji was visibly irked with the state leaders at the meeting. Amitavada was not the only person who faced his wrath,” this person added.
During the meeting, the central leadership announced its decision that all candidates who fought the rural polls — both successfully and unsuccessfully — would be felicitated in their respective districts. The state chief of the Yuva Morcha, Indranil Khan, said the youth wing also wished to participate in the programme as the organiser. Pandey immediately rejected his proposal.
Later, it was announced that the BJP would conduct a rally in Calcutta on July 19 to condemn the violence allegedly unleashed by the Trinamul Congress during the rural elections. Pandey said at least 10,000 people must participate in the rally.
He then asked Khan the head count the youth wing could deliver.
“Indranil said he could get 3,000-3,500 people if the party provided him with logistical support,” said a source.
Pandey asked if there had ever been a case where the party had not provided logistical support and then turned to Amitava Chakraborty, the state general-secretary (organisation), to keep track of how many people Khan’s youth wing actually brought to the rally.
Pandey allotted three of five organisational zones of the BJP in the state to Chakraborty and two to his deputy Satish Dhond. Chakraborty and Dhond were asked to visit those zones and finish setting up the party’s organisation at the grassroots by July 25.
A source said: “The two leaders were instructed that in case a district president was unable to appoint people under him, they must be replaced immediately.”
“It was clear from the meeting that Mangalji is very upset with the state unit. The way he rebuked almost everyone was surprising for most of us,” a state BJP functionary said.
The central leaders structurally reorganised the party and carved out the Jadavpur Lok Sabha area as a separate organisational district.
The existing Murshidabad North and South organisational districts were merged, while the Jangipur Lok Sabha area was turned into a separate unit. The number of organisational districts for the Bengal unit now stands at 43, up from 42.
At the meeting, national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said the party has failed to repeat its recent performances in the Jungle Mahal and north Bengal in the recently concluded rural polls.
According to him, while the BJP had performed exceptionally well in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 and even the Assembly elections of 2021 in those areas, their vote and seat share in the panchayat polls climbed down considerably.
He purportedly blamed the organisational drawbacks of the party for the underperformance.
However, Ghosh was contradicted by a state general-secretary, who claimed that it has been statistically proven that the BJP has performed better in the panchayat polls this time than in 2018.
Adhikari absent
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari was absent from the meeting.
State unit chief Sukanta Majumdar said Adhikari had other preoccupations.
The Nandigram BJP MLA was, however, present at a meeting held in Majumdar’s residence in the city on Saturday.
