BJP revamps state unit in West Bengal ahead of Assembly polls

Kolkata, Jan 12: With an eye on assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) West Bengal unit has thoroughly revamped its party organization inducting new faces for the top posts to place itself as a credible opposition.

"We have revamped the organisation with an eye on 2016 assembly polls. We have chalked out a plan to achieve our goal. The people are with us and it was proved in recent law violation programmes across the state," West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, who assumed the post last month, told PTI.

Within weeks of taking over, Ghosh, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak, cracked the whip and removed several office bearers and district presidents. The change appears to have infused a new lease of energy with the BJP cadres hitting the streets in various parts of the state as part of law-violation programme.

According to party insiders who spoke on condition of anonymity, Ghosh has full support of RSS and has thrown its full strength behind him after placing its men in key positions.

Actress-turned-politician Rupa Ganguly, who reportedly shared a strained relationship with for former BJP state president Rahul Sinha, was made the chief of state BJP women's wing. With the new leadership cracking the whip, several top leaders of state BJP like general secretary Ashim Sarkar, media convenor Ritesh Tiwari have lost their berths.

Others to go includes the party's youth wing president Amitava Roy and several former bureaucrats who joined BJP before the 2014 general election did not find any berth in the state unit.

Although Tiwari retained his post seat as secretary, Roy was made a new one. The changes were made in the backdrop of growing dissent in the rank and file over outsiders, who had joined the party in Bengal after 2014 being given important positions at the expense of old-timers.

After a good show in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when it garnered about 18% vote share, BJP appears to have lost its steam in Bengal politics within a year due to lack of leadership, infighting and its alleged understanding with the ruling Trinamool Congress.

PTI