West Bengal: Panchayat polls quarter-final: BJP

“Next year’s panchayat polls will be the quarter-final for us, and 2019 Lok Sabha election will be semi-final. The Assembly election in 2021 will be the final,” he added.  Ghosh further said the party would soon start registering members through a missed call system. “In 2015, we had 42 lakh members. Now, our target is to reach 1 crore membership in Bengal,” he said.

The BJP leader also said people from all political parties were coming to BJP, and the party would contest using its own strength. “Every day, workers from other political parties — including the TMC — are joining us. The people of the state are fed up with the present government. They want a change now, and BJP is the only alternative for them… We only have Gorkha Janmukti Morcha as our ally in the hills. We will support them. But in the rest of the state, we will contest the polls alone,” Ghosh said.

“People used to say they cannot see BJP in West Bengal. Now, the same people are saying they cannot see CPM and Congress in the state. Congress has turned into a party which receives fewer votes than NOTA votes. Both CPM and Congress have vanished from the political arena. The fight is now between TMC and BJP,” he added.  Reacting to Ghosh’s comments, Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee said BJP was “daydreaming”, claiming it would not be able to field the required 80,000 candidates.

“He does not know how panchayat elections are held. To contest in every seat in the three-tier panchayat election, they will have to field 80,000 candidates. BJP is daydreaming… They will not be able to turn this dream into a reality even in 3019,” Chatterjee said.