KOLKATA: West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which have begun preparations for next year’s assembly elections, are focusing on strengthening the organisational base at the polling booth level in every district.
There were about 80,000 polling booths in Bengal during the 2021 assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
At the TMC meeting attended by 9,000 party workers on Tuesday, national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee declared that the party would replace the party’s booth agents and booth committee presidents of all polling booths where the BJP had a lead of over 100 votes over the TMC in the 2021 assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
TMC leaders stated that although the BJP won only 77 of Bengal’s 294 assembly seats in 2021 and 12 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats last year, there were 25,000 polling booths where the BJP was ahead of the TMC, regardless of the outcome in the constituency.
“Abhishek directed that regular meetings must be held at every booth level in the run-up to the 2026 state elections. He also asked us to identify block-level election officers who might have links to the BJP or CPI(M),” a TMC leader, who attended the meeting, said.
The TMC meeting came on the same day that the Election Commission suspended two electoral registration officers (EROs), two assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) and a data entry operator over allegations that they added a few hundred names to electoral rolls in the assembly constituencies of Baruipur Purba in South 24 Parganas and Moyna in East Midnapore districts without scrutiny.
The TMC won the Bauipur Purba seat in 2021 but lost the Moyna seat to the BJP.
West Bengal BJP leaders said the party leadership has focused on its weaknesses at the polling booth level, especially in districts that are home to migrant workers who had returned to the state amid a drive against illegal Bangladeshi migrants in BJP-ruled states.
“Union home minister Amit Shah discussed this with top state leaders and MPs in Delhi on Tuesday and said the party must form committees and select election agents for every booth in the next three months,” a senior state BJP leader said on condition of anonymity.
“During the 2024 polls, we did not have proper committees for at least 40% polling booths across Bengal, although the district committees were in place,” he added.
BJP leaders said that apart from formulating booth-level strategies, the leadership was concerned about organisational weaknesses in district units and differences among local leaders.
On Wednesday, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya appointed new presidents for the organisational district units at Darjeeling, Barrackpore, Bongaon and Ghatal.
“Bhattacharya took the decision after it was found that the people nominated for these posts during the recent organisational reshuffle were not efficient enough,” a state BJP leader said.
