BJP's central leaders assess party's ground situation in Bengal

Senior BJP leaders, deputed by the party's top brass to assess the ground situation in West Bengal ahead of next year's assembly elections, spoke to its district functionaries on Thursday.

Senior BJP leaders Sunil Deodhar, Vinod Tawde, Dushyant Gautam, Harish Dwivedi and Vinod Sonkar, have been handpicked by the party's top leadership to head the North Bengal, Rarh Banga (south-western districts), Nabadwip, Midnapore and Kolkata organisational zones.

Deodhar, Tawde, Gautam and Sonkar held several meetings in their respective zones during the day.

They interacted with a cross-section of district leaders -- the current office-bearers and their predecessors, party sources said.

"They spoke to several leaders, district presidents, former presidents and office-bearers. They also spoke to some leaders and workers who have reservations over the functioning of the present local leadership," a senior state BJP leader said.

The central leaders will be meeting members of different booth committees to assess the preparedness on the ground level. They will submit a zone-specific report to the party leadership by early next month, he said.

The TMC mocked the BJP for "importing leaders" to take care of its state unit.

"It proves that the BJP state unit doesn't have competent leaders, because of which the party is bringing in leaders from other states. It is laughable that with such strength they are daydreaming of capturing Bengal," TMC MP Sougata Roy said.

Elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly are likely in April-May next year.