JOIN USBJP making organisational changes ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls
After successful stints in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party is sending the party’s general secretary (organisation) from the state, Sunil Bansal to tackle West Bengal, where the party is entangled in a tight contest with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government, as well as Telangana and Odisha, both states the BJP considers crucial to move ahead beyond the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Bansal has been appointed national general secretary in charge of the three states. Bansal, who has long been the sangathan mantri or general secretary (organisation) in the UP state unit, is now formally part of the BJP’s party structure and is the party’s key strategist behind the BJP’s wins in the 2017 as well as the 2022 assembly elections.
Bansal’s role in UP will be taken up by Dharampal Singh, who was general secretary (organisation) Jharkhand. He was replaced in Jharkhand by Karamveer Singh, who was the co-organisational secretary in the Uttar Pradesh state unit.
Bansal, a key aide of home minister Amit Shah, was part of the Varanasi campaign of Narendra Modi in 2014 as well as 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He was also the strategist in the 2017 as well as 2022 assembly elections in UP, and is considered the party’s man who employed data sets to win elections. While he was an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in his home state Rajasthan, he was not actively involved with the party before 2014.
In 2014, the BJP won 71 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats, and subsequently came to power in the state in 2017 winning 312 of the state’s 403 seats. In 2022, despite the farmer’s protests and the mahagathbandhan of eight Opposition parties led by Samajwadi party, the BJP retained 255 seats.
In Bengal, the BJP despite making a commendable mark in 2021, could not win the state. But as cases pile up against top aides of CM Mamata Banerjee, the party is planning a massive outreach programme in the coming weeks, and is deploying senior ministers like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Smriti Irani, Dharmendra Pradhan, Pratima Bhowmik, SP Singh Baghel, and Hardeep Singh Puri, among others, to go to constituencies.
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Party MP Locket Chatterjee said that the corruption cases against TMC leaders will only increase, and that the BJP is the only contender to TMC. “People are having a hard time in Bengal, with politically-motivated attacks by TMC workers, and sexist comments by the chief minister. The BJP is the only true contender, and Sunil Bansal’s appointment has enthused workers, because his work in UP is proof of his mettle,” Chatterjee said.
The BJP managed to win 77 seats in the state up from the 3 seats it won in 2016, and managed to win 37.97 per cent, up from the 10.16 per cent of the votes in 2016. The state is key to the party’s 2024 plan, especially with Banerjee trying to occupy the key position of Opposition leader.
In Telangana, the BJP is positive about winning the states from the KCR-led Telangana Rashtra Samithi, and even held the party’s National Executive in the state last month to boost the morale of the party’s workers. The BJP is also keen to make a mark in Odisha, where the party won 8 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.