2019 battle: WB BJP exceeds Shah's expectations, targets 26 seats
Buoyed by its performance in rural polls, the West Bengal BJP unit is set to submit its Lok Sabha blueprint, targeting 26 seats, to party president Amit Shah during his two-day visit to the state from June 27. Shah had set a target of 22 out of 42 LS seats. He is expected to hold deliberations on the party's political strategy with state leaders.
BJP can win 26 seats if fair election happens: State-president
"We will submit our complete report to Amit Shah. He had given us a target of 22 seats, but if the elections are held in a fair manner, we are in a position to win at least 26 seats," BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.
BJP faces tough time in bringing intellectuals onboard for campaign
The BJP presently has two LS-seats, Asansol and Darjeeling. The party is having a tough time in scouting for answers over its "inability" to constitute committees in more than 77,000 polling stations and bring intellectuals on board for campaigns. Reportedly, the 26 seats where the BJP's chances of winning are over 60-70% spread across North Bengal, South Bengal and tribal-dominated districts of Junglemahal.
'Fearing backlash by TMC, people aren't agreeing to man booth-committees'
"We haven't been able to reach out to all the booths, especially the minority-dominated districts. We have a support base, but no one is ready to man the booth committees fearing backlash by TMC. We hope things will change," Ghosh said. "The party has met more than 500 intellectuals in last few months but not many of them have come forward to join us."
Party's performance in panchayat-polls accelerated WB's ground-level politics: BJP
In its report, the state unit showed apprehensiveness about the Darjeeling seat following the change in political equation in the Hills, where the present GJM leadership, under Binay Tamang, is more inclined towards ruling TMC, said the BJP leader. According to Ghosh, BJP's performance in last month's panchayat polls despite ruling TMC's "reign of terror" has accelerated the ground-level political situation of the state.
BJP appointed observers for 42 Lok Sabha seats
The gap between the ruling TMC and the surging BJP is still wide, if the overall rural polls and assembly bypoll results were to be taken into consideration. The party has also appointed observers for each of the 42 Lok Sabha seats to strengthen the organization at the booth level. Ghosh claimed that after rural-polls, the party has been able to cover 85% booths.
