‘Organisational weakness’ one among many key factors

Kolkata: Failure to understand the mind of the people and the organisational weakness were found to be among the main causes of BJP’s Lok Sabha elections debacle in Bengal, which came up in the party’s internal review meeting held recently.

According to sources, organisational weakness, switching candidates in seats it won in 2019, excessive use of Central agencies and stoppage of MGNREGA and other Central scheme funds as Trinamool Congress (TMC) had pointed fingers could have dashed the BJP’s prospect in Bengal. During the party’s internal review meeting the state BJP leaders also accepted that they failed to understand the mind of the people in Bengal.

The Bengal BJP had taken several steps to strengthen the party’s organisation at the booth level. During the meeting that was held to find out the probable causes of the BJP’s poor show in the state, the party leaders found that the organisational weakness could have been one of the main causes behind the party’s Lok Sabha results. The absence of a Modi wave and people’s belief in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s social welfare scheme also played havoc for BJP, some of the party leaders said. Former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh after he lost the elections had said that the decision of the party to change his constituency was proven wrong. He said the party’s organisational weakness was prevalent. Ghosh was defeated from Burdwan-Durgapur seat.

TMC’s protest on the deprivation of MGNREGA funds to the state for more than two years by the Centre and the state government releasing its share of the job guarantee scheme funds ahead of the Lok Sabha polls announcement also worked against BJP, political experts have felt.