BJP gears up for upcoming Bengal Assembly by-polls

Kolkata, Aug 22: After making its presence felt in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, the BJP is gearing up to strengthen party organisations ahead of the forthcoming Assembly by-elections next month and municipal polls later this year.

State BJP chief Rahul Sinha said that the party was now concentrating on the by-elections to Basirhat South and Chowringhee Assembly seats. BJP had got a lead of 30,000 votes in Basirhat South Assembly segment in the Lok Sabha poll.

"West Bengal is now one of the most important states for us to increase our organisation and strength with an eye on the 2016 Assembly polls. Our party president himself is keeping track of Bengal on a regular basis," BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told PTI.

"We have taken several steps from increasing our cadre mobilisation to reaching out to the masses with our policies," Naqvi said. Trinamool Congress, however, claimed that it would win the Basirhat South and Chowringhee seats, saying Lok Sabha and Assembly polls were different ball games and the "so called Modi-wave is on the wane".

"We will win both the seats as Modi wave is on the wane," TMC MP Sultan Ahmed said. Referring to the party's growth in the state, Sinha said, "Modi wave is there. The growing interest about BJP among the masses and our ability to put up an alternative to the misrule of the TMC is one of the main reasons behind our phenomenal rise in the state."

The BJP, which secured 18 per cent vote share in the state in the last Lok Sabha polls and bagged two seats -- Asansol and Darjeeling -- is trying to change the political equations in the state, which till recently was polarised between Left and Trinamool Congress.

BJP's National secretary Siddharth Nath Singh, one of the main architects behind the party's good showing in the state, said that apart from inducting leaders and workers from different parties, the BJP is also concentrating on increasing its base in trade unions, students and youth wings.

PTI