Bengal BJP ignored Mukul Roy’s warning on organisational weakness

Months ahead of his departure from the BJP, Mukul Roy repeatedly warned the state leadership about several organisational and strategic flaws which left the party in a condition where it was not capable of winning even 100 seats in West Bengal.

BJP sources said that ahead of the Assembly elections, when the state BJP leadership were hopeful of fulfilling the target of winning 200 seats in Bengal set by Union Home Minister Amit Shah Roy, Roy repeatedly urged them to pay heed to his suggestions regarding how to strengthen the organisation, to select issues for campaigning.

“But the state leadership did not pay heed to his concerns. At one point, Roy stopped giving suggestions altogether as a section of party leaders accused him of trying to break the morale of cadres,” a state BJP leader said.

Read more: Mukul Roy, the Chanakya of West Bengal politics

BJP sources revealed that Roy urged the state leadership to focus more on strengthening booth level organisation rather than hype.

They said that Roy told the leadership that contrary to the report submitted by the district unit, the number of booth committees was far lesser in Bengal. But since the district committees were set up by the state committee, party president Dilip Ghosh did not pay heed to Roy’s suggestions, sources said.

They further revealed that Roy also did not approve of the state BJP’s polarizing tactics, arguing that it would not be prudent for the party to adopt hardcore Hindutva tactics as it was erroneous to assume that the party would not get any minority votes in Bengal.

“Roy told the state leadership that such polarizing tactics would alienate minority community workers in the party, leading to an adverse effect on its poll prospects,” BJP sources said.

They also said that the BJP’s organisation in Bengal was not strong enough to consolidate the majority of the Hindu votes in its favour.

BJP insiders said that Roy also suggested the state leadership not to resort to personal attacks on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as it would not go down well with voters.

However, after Suvendu Adhikari joined the saffron party, such attacks increased. Sources close to Ghosh said that Roy’s suggestion regarding the Chief Minister only showed his allegiance to her.