BJP to restructure organisation with Assembly poll in mind

The BJP in West Bengal is planning to revamp its organisation keeping in mind next year's Assembly poll and the party will stay away from announcing any chief ministerial candidate for the election, according to a senior BJP central leader.

"We will have no chief ministerial candidate for next year's Assembly poll. If we win the election, we will decide who will be the chief minister," the leader told PTI.

He gave the example of Haryana where the party after winning the poll decided to appoint Manohar Lal Khattar as the chief minister.

Under the restructuring plan, apart from having a state president the party will have a bigger core group, each member of which will be assigned with specific responsibility.

According to BJP leaders, the party wants to remould the leadership starting from the grassroots to the top in an effort to make its mark in the Assembly poll.

A section of the party's state leadership felt that a year after the BJP's "good" show in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll in West Bengal, lack of leadership, infighting and alleged understanding with the Trinamool Congress seemed to have begun to take a toll on the outfit in the key eastern state.

The BJP leadership had recently appointed Kailash Vijayvargia, party's general secretary, as the central observer for West Bengal.

Vijayvargia, who is presently in the city to look into the organisational issues, told PTI that the BJP would be capable enough organisationally in the next few months to take on TMC in West Bengal.

"There is a disillusionment regarding TMC among the masses. They are looking for a viable option in Bengal. The BJP is the only option," Vijayvargia told PTI.

When asked about the present tussle between BJP leader Rupa Ganguly and state president Rahul Sinha, Vijayvargia said, "There is no misunderstanding and Rupa Ganguly is a senior leader of the BJP and she will not be stopped from doing her job."

Vijayvargia's comment today came after two separate meetings with Rupa Ganguly and Rahul Sinha to discuss the matter.

"I have told him whatever I wanted to say. But I don't want to disclose that to the press," Ganguly said.