As part of the plan to acquire party offices commensurate to its growing status a la Trinamool Congress and the CPI(M), the Bengal unit of the BJP is looking for new swanky buildings befitting its political height in the State.
The party has already set up about 22 district party offices decorated with high-tech facilities and will soon be acquiring new places for 14 more districts insiders say. While Bengal has 21 administrative districts excluding capital Kolkata the saffron outfit is divided into 36 organisational ones.
In Kolkata too the party is getting itself a new State party office more spacious than the existing one at Muralidhar Sen lane, sources said.
“The CPI(M), Trinamool and even the Congress has bigger party offices to accommodate people. With growing organisational base now we also need bigger offices in to accommodate members who pour in for various reasons,” said a State committee member adding the newly built 22 party offices are equipped with high-tech gadgets like e-library, wi-fi connectivity conference rooms, lodging facilities, conference rooms and wherever possible canteens.
Expecting increasing denial by the Trinamool administration to let Government conference halls the BJP is planning to set up its ownconference rooms which can accommodate more than 300 people at a time, sources said.
The BJP currently has two lok Sabha seats in Bengal. Going by the steady expansion in its footprints in the State and a matching fall in left support base as was witnessed during the panchayat elections the party is not unlikely to increase the tally by at least another 3-4 seats, sources say.
“Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, Bankura, Purulia, Midnapore and Hooghly are some of the seats to watch this time round,” said a party insider adding the new party offices would go a distance in inspiring the organisers. “We are planning to have big offices in every district and mandal or block level,” a leader said. If the party cannot construct all of them in a year’s time it will rent some places for the purpose. Similarly the new State office in Kolkata will have high-tech facilities and swanky interiors. “As the older offices cannot accommodate as many people we are taking new office nearby on rent ahead of the 2019 elections,” State party president Dilip Ghosh said.
Apart from setting up new offices the party leadership is also planning to purchase at least one vehicle for each district office.
“Currently we don’t have as many cars. The party will require added number of vehicles before the elections to keep the organisational work going. Besides we will also need at least four two-wheelers for each district for the pracharaks or organizers,” said an insider adding however the decision would be taken by the leadership.
Meanwhile the BJP’s efforts to woo Kolkata intelligentsia received some kind of initial jolt after famous Bengali actor and top protagonist of Satyajit Ray films Soumitra Chatterjee told senior party leader Rahul Sinha that he was one person who did not relish the demonetisation programme.
Sinha who had gone to Chatterjee’s residence to appraise him of the BJP Government’s performance and take his view on that the highly decorated veteran actor said he was particularly not impressed by demonetisation that had taken him through hardships. On giving his views on the BJP he said he had stopped giving political opinions. Sinha however said the actor had not criticized the BJP’s works but only expressed the story of his inconvenience during demonetisation.