BJP in Bengal sets up 20-member election management committee for LS polls

The West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set up a 20-member election committee in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, a source said on Sunday.

According to party sources, among the 20 members of the committee, four are special invitees. They are BJP's IT department chief Amit Malviya, the party's national general secretary Sunil Bansal and the party's two central observers for West Bengal, Mangal Pandey and Asha Lakra.

The other prominent members on the committee include state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar; leader of the opposition in West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari, party MPs like Dilip Ghosh, Subhash Sarkar, Nisith Pramanik, Shantanu Thakur, John Barla, Locket Chattopadhyay and Jyotirmay Singh Mahato.

Fashion designer-turned politician and the party's legislator Agnimitra Paul has also found a place in the committee.

Political observers feel that in the committee, a balance has been made in accommodating both "old timers" and "fresh faces" who are currently in the leadership positions of the party in the state.

Observers also feel that the inclusion of Dilip Ghosh as a member of the committee was "bit surprising" since in the recent past, he had been giving indications of concentrating mostly on his own Lok Sabha constituency of Midnapore.

However, a member of the state committee of the party in West Bengal said that inclusion of Ghosh has been done, keeping in mind his experience in handling organisational affairs both as the party’s state president in West Bengal and national vice-president earlier. In fact, it was under Ghosh's leadership that the BJP increased its winning tally to 18 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in the 2019 polls from just two in 2014.

West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats.