Hazra, along with Mukul Roy and Raju Bishta, got a position in the new BJP national team.
New Delhi: Three prominent leaders from West Bengal have received key positions in the newly formed national team of the BJP, that was announced last week by the party’s national president J.P. Nadda. Political experts believe that these three key positions given to leaders from Bengal for the first time is keeping in mind the state Assembly elections slated to take place next year, where the BJP is hoping to dethrone the Mamata Banerjee government.
The three BJP leaders from Bengal who have found place in the national team include senior leader Mukul Roy, who was once the second man in Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress; he has been appointed as one of the seven National Vice Presidents of the party. The other name that had taken many by surprise was the young leader from Bengal, Anupam Hazra. Anupam Hazra was appointed as the National Secretary of the party, while Darjeeling MP, Raju Bishta, has been appointed as one of the national spokespersons of the party.
The newly appointed national secretary of the party, Anupam Hazra, in an exclusive conversation with The Sunday Guardian said that three key positions given to Bengal leaders shows the seriousness of the party to win Bengal. He also said that it is the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring back the glorious days of Bengal and make Bengal a “truly Shonar Bangla”.
“Bengal is the home state of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a dream to make Bengal a Shonar Bangla and the last 11 years of misrule of the present government has led the state to drastically fall in every sphere. It is this dream of Modiji and Amit Shahji along with our national President Naddaji and to realise this dream, he has given enormous focus on Bengal which is very much evident from the team he has given to Bengal,” Hazra said.
The BJP and the TMC are in a fierce battle against each other in the state and it is not going to be an easy task for any party to call it a walk over in the upcoming Assembly polls. While the BJP will be fighting a battle to win one of its very first eastern states in the country, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is going in for an existential battle.
Anupam Hazra talked about the challenges the BJP is going to face in the upcoming elections. He said that one of the major challenges for the party would be to hold a free and fair election, an election which is devoid of violence and with the confidence of the voters.
“The challenge will be to ensure that elections are held in Bengal without violence, because for the people of Bengal, elections have become synonymous with murder, extortion and violence. The first challenge is to create an ambience where people will feel safe and secure to cast their own vote; we need to ensure all sorts of security for our voters so that free and fair elections takes place and for this, if required, we will ask for more Central forces. The second big challenge will be to ensure that all the schemes that are rolled out by the Central government percolate to the people below. Why I am saying this is because the Mamata Banerjee government has obstructed all the welfare schemes of the Central government and what they have also done is that most of the Central schemes have been repackaged as state schemes and being distributed to the people by pasting photographs of Mamata Banerjee. We will need to make people aware that these are the series of programmes initiated by the Central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the vulnerable sections of the society and not the state government,” Hazra said.
For elections in a state like West Bengal, booth level workers and cadres are an important aspect to win and the BJP is many areas is still struggling to put together a strong team at the grassroots level to be ready for the electoral battle ahead.
Hazra also acknowledged the importance of booth level workers in fighting elections in Bengal. He said, “At some places, I agree that we need to strengthen our manpower at the booth level as you known whatever campaign is done, it happens through these foot soldiers. We need to strengthen our booths; we need to have more people in every booth in Bengal so that suitable and capable persons are taken in to sit and manage these booths. These will also be the same workers who will go from house to house and make people aware of the good work of the BJP and the misrule of the Mamata Banerjee government.”
Hazra also believes that the BJP has a very suitable chance of coming to power this time around in Bengal as the people of Bengal are “fed up” with the lies and misgovernance in 10 years of the Mamata Banerjee government. He also believes that widespread corruption by TMC workers on the ground would also act as a detrimental factor for the TMC and would benefit the BJP.
Hazra also predicted that the BJP is likely to win 200 out of the 294 Assembly seats in Bengal.
However, as a word of caution, he said that Mamata Banerjee should not be taken lightly by the BJP in Bengal just because she is facing huge anti-incumbency.
“We should not take Mamata Banerjee lightly as well, because for her, this will be her war for existence as once she loses this election, her entire party will perish. She will try her level best with all her might and the anti-social elements she has to capture booths. We have seen that just before the elections; Banerjee is in the habit of releasing all her anti-social elements from jail so that they go to different villages and scare people. We will ensure that all sorts of security are provided to the voters,” Hazra said.
As national secretary, Hazra said it is his responsibility to take everyone together and make the party win in the state in the upcoming elections. He also believes that the BJP team together will be able to bring back the glorious days of Bengal, the Bengal which belonged to Rabindranath Tagore, Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Vidya Sagar.
“This government will crumble under its own burden of corruption and misgovernance. People have seen how TMC leaders were busy in making money even during a crisis like Amphaan and corona. They are not in any mood to tolerate Mamata Banerjee anymore,” Hazra said.