Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President JP Nadda on Tuesday removed West Bengal leader Anupam Hazra as the party's national secretary with immediate effect. This came after Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Nadda held organisational meetings with the core members of the state party unit to chalk out strategies in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
A former Lok Sabha MP, Hazra has been critical of the party's functioning in the state for some time. Hazra's removal from the post is being seen as a message to dissidents within the party to stick to organisational discipline and toe the leadership's line.
After the meeting, Amit Shah said that the people of Bengal trust Prime Minister Narendra Modi and are all set to bless the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with 35 out of the 42 parliamentary seats in the state.
"At the internal party meeting, both Amit Shah Ji and Nadda Ji took stock of our organisational preparedness and asked us to reach out to the masses with the developmental work the Modi government has done in the last 10 years," a BJP leader said.
"There has been no announcement as of now. But an election management committee will be formed, which will look into the winnability of seats, our strengths, and weaknesses in each seat," said another party leader.
Earlier in the day, the Union Home Minister targeted West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee by saying that only BJP can stop the rampant corruption in the state.
In 2019, the Trinamool Congress won 22 seats but faced stiff competition from the BJP, which won 18 seats. The remaining two seats went to Congress. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, the TMC secured a resounding victory for the third consecutive term, winning 215 assembly seats, while the BJP secured 77.
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