The BJP today made key organizational changes to its Bengal unit that may significantly undermine the unquestioned authority of Dilip Ghosh who was reappointed the party President in the glow of BJP's 18 seat sweep in the state in the Lok Sabha elections held last year.
State general secretary (organisation) Subrata Chattopadhyay, the RSS-appointee who held the post for seven years and is known to be close to Dilip Ghosh, was replaced Wednesday evening. The announcement came minutes after he concluded a high level party meeting with top BJP leaders.
Amitava Chakravorty, an RSS pracharak from Bengal's South Dinajpur district, has replaced him. Mr Chakravorty, who was with the ABVP in Bengal till 2014, went to Odisha as the organisational secretary before returning to Bengal in 2019 as the additional general secretary (organisation) to work under Subrata Chattopadhyay.
Mr Subrata Chattopadhyay is credited with creating the BJP's organisational infrastructure of 40 districts and 1,255 mandals. But resentments grew against him over his iron control.
Sources say the party's expansion was suffering because of his rigid control and some complaints had reached New Delhi.
Signals of trouble were in the air, add sources, even in the case of Dilip Ghosh who, for example, was conspicuous by his absence at the prime minister's virtual Durga Puja proramme in Kolkata on 22nd October even though he was indeed recovering at home from Covid after his discharge from hospital. Dilip Ghosh is also reputed to have no time for "political turncoats", who have switched over from Trinamool.
Many other organisational changes are likely in November, say sources, when Amit Shah visits Bengal after BJP chief JP Nadda finishes tweaking the state set-up.
Mr Nadda will visit Bengal for the second time in less than 30 days on November 6 and 7 to streamline the organisation ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls. He was in Bengal on October 19 when he visited Siliguri in the north .
Mr Nadda will hold meetings in two organisational districts. On November 6, he will meet workers from the Burdwan organisational district comprising Birbhum, Purulia, Bankura, Asansol and East Burdwan districts. On November 7, he will meet workers from Jangalmahal, comprising East and West Medinipur, Jhargram, Howrah, and Hooghly.
The tentative location of the meetings is Burdwan and Medinipur town.
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