Lok Sabha 2024: Bengal BJP bets on strong organisation, more women candidates
Bharatiya Janata Party Bengal unit has created a solid organisational foundation and is likely to field more women candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in a bid to achieve the target of 35 seats set by union home minister Amit Shah, top BJP leaders said.
«The party is standing on a solid organisational foundation now and we have our vote base as well. So, with these factors in mind, we have been given a target of 35 seats,» former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh told ET.
Ghosh is part of the core team that will manage the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The team includes leaders with experience in organising polls.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP had won 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The saffron camp had then fielded five women candidates out of which two had won.
Party leaders claimed BJP gives priority to women candidates.
«We have fielded women candidates in the previous polls and Agnimitra Paul won in the by-election,» Ghosh said. «BJP is already giving seats to women candidates. After reservation, giving seats to women will be mandatory,» he added.
In 2019, actor-turned-politician Locket Chatterjee won from Hooghly and Debasree Chowdhury won from Raigunj.
Chowdhury was the minister of state for women and child development until July 2021. BJP's women candidates who lost in the last Lok Sabha elections in Bengal were Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury from Malda (South), Bharati Ghosh from Ghatal, and Mafuja Khatoon from Jangipur.
«As long as respect towards women and upliftment is concerned, BJP cannot be compared with any other political party,» West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said recently. «The final selection of the candidates will be done by the central unit of the party,» he added.
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