‘Koi Shaque?’: Mithun Chakraborty returns to give Bengal BJP an organisational revamp

In the recently held national executive in Hyderabad, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pledged to form a government in West Bengal along with Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Following the command, the Bengal unit of the party has pulled up its socks to launch a mega campaigning plan across the state with a focus on the upcoming panchayat polls and the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.

First, the BJP has revamped its organisational structure and introduced new committees at the district and grassroots levels to boost its mass connections. Moreover, the party has asked actor-turned-BJP politician Mithun Chakraborty to return and help the party to implement the new campaign strategy.

After the victory of Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections defeating the BJP, the saffron party has faced a significant setback. Several top leaders who joined the party from the TMC have returned to Mamata Banerjee. Similarly, the party has witnessed an increase in infighting. The party cadres have become overly demoralised as the leadership was majorly unavailable.

The party has repeatedly alleged that the ruling TMC has unleashed post-poll violence and implicated the BJP supporters across the state. However, neither the state government nor the TMC has approved such allegations. At such a time, the party is worried about keeping its flock together in the coming days. The BJP leaders have also expressed their concern over repeating the result of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in 2024. That election saw the BJP achieve its best outcome to date, winning 18 of the state's 42 Lok Sabha seats.

Political significance of Mithun’s return

After the defeat in the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections, the BJP leaders of the state have repeatedly mentioned in private conversations that the party lacks a crowd puller in the state. The party understands that its main fight is with Bengal chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who is not only the face of the party but also a huge crowd puller. Banerjee is also known for her street-fighting capabilities.

In contrast, the BJP in Bengal does have some leaders to lead the organisation, but the party neither has a credible face nor has a leader who can draw a crowd and can speak in clear Bengali. In the Assembly elections, the BJP was fully dependent on the campaigning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, among other central leaders. The party realised that there was a massive gap due to the difference in language.

Significantly, on Monday, the BJP headquarters on the Muralidhar Sen Lane in Kolkata saw a large crowd. After the defeat in the Assembly elections, the party headquarters had hardly witnessed such a crowd. This happened as Mithun Chakraborty came to the BJP headquarters to meet Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar and other senior leaders.

On 7 March 2021, just before the Assembly election, Mithun Chakraborty formally joined the BJP in the presence of Prime Minister Modi at Kolkata's storied Brigade Parade Ground. In 2014, Mamata nominated him to the Rajya Sabha, where he served for five years before resigning.

What are at Mithun Chakraborty's plate?

Sources in the BJP confirmed that Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar has primarily given Mithun the task of campaigning. Second, the party also suggested Chakraborty visit the districts of Bengal and hold meetings in a bid to energise the cadres and supporters of the BJP before the Lok Sabha elections. In the 2021 Assembly elections, he covered almost all the 294 constituencies and campaigned for non-stop 55 days.

How is BJP revamping Bengal unit?

The party’s executive committee has agreed to alter the organisational structure. The current organisation will be updated to incorporate two new committees, the area committee and the block committee. Senior leaders of the BJP confirmed that the party has introduced these two new committees to strengthen the organisation at the grassroots level. The BJP leadership believes that these changes will also create more scope to accommodate leaders in the organisation.

According to the BJP leaders, during the recent visit of party president JP Nada, it was decided that the Bengal unit would follow the model of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat in terms of organisational setup. The BJP state unit has also decided that no more than 60 members will be present in any Mandal committee, and in district committees, the maximum number of people will be 90.

After the defeat of the 2021 Assembly elections, the central leadership of the BJP removed Dilip Ghosh as the chief of the Bengal unit and appointed Sukanta Majumdar. After he took over the charge, Mazumdar made several changes in the organisation. However, there was no significant uproar inside the party over these changes. Several sections close to Dilip Ghosh observed that Mazumdar had not given adequate importance to every section of the communities and had also ignored the old guards. The state unit of the BJP believes that the introduction of these committees will allow more representation and calm the discontent of many leaders.

How does Bengal BJP want to take help from RSS?

Top BJP officials from West Bengal and chosen members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh met in the nation’s capital last month to develop a plan for bolstering the saffron party in preparation for the upcoming Lok Sabha and panchayat elections in Bengal. Sources claim that the BJP has asked the RSS to actively participate in campaigning.

Following this, the Sangh made the decision to get more politically involved and support the BJP through front groups like the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. The BJP and RSS have chosen to create both labour union leaders and student union leaders, modelling their decision after that of the communists in Bengal. The party and the song have both agreed that in Bengal, new faces and youth must take precedence when it comes to party leadership.

Analysing Bengal BJP's new initiatives

There are several observations from the political analysts of Bengal on the recent moves of the BJP. A section of political analysts believes that bringing back Mithun Chakraborty will not help the party. It is true that he campaigned relentlessly for the BJP during the 2021 elections but when the cadres really needed him to stay beside them after the defeat he was not there. It is also important to note that on one hand, Mithun Chakraborty has claimed that he was unwell and on the other hand he has not only acted in some recent movies but also been present as a judge of reality shows.

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It is possible that these shoots were done much before but without proper clarification, there is a chance that people will misread his actions.

Similarly, the crowd-pulling capacity of Mithun Chakraborty and Mamata Banerjee is not equitable because the crowd for Mithun Da can be purely for his charisma as an actor and not as a politician. Meanwhile, getting a Rajya Sabha seat from TMC and then leaving the party has reportedly hurt his credibility in terms of politics.

The organisational revamp is a welcome step. But before the revamp the party will have to ensure to douse the fire of infighting among every section of the party and find a credible leader who will stay in the front and lead the campaign. Depending on too many leaders with different opinions will not work for the party. Similarly, over-dependence on the central leadership has proved to be a bad decision in Bengal. It is high time for the BJP's Bengal unit to offer people one credible face as a leader on whom people can depend.

The author is an independent journalist and columnist based in Kolkata and a former policy research fellow at the Delhi Assembly Research Centre. He tweets as @sayantan_gh. Views expressed are entirely personal.

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