Nabin tells West Bengal BJP ministers that party should not interfere in government functioning

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Nabin’s two-day visit to West Bengal focussed on creating synergy between the party and the Government. The visit comes ahead of by-polls to two Assembly seats, Rejinagar and Nandigram. The party is also gearing up for civic polls after the Durga Pujas.

Mr. Nabin arrived in the State on Sunday, where he participated in a number of organisational meetings.

West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said Mr. Nabin made it clear during a high-level meeting with the State Council of Ministers that “ministers should perform their respective roles and that the party organisation should not interfere in the functioning of the Government”.

While the previous Trinamool Congress regime was marked by a centralisation of power in one person who was both the head of the party and the Government, the BJP Government headed by Suvendu Adhikari has to work in tandem with the party led by Mr. Bhattacharya.

Last week, the State unit of the BJP carried out an organisational reshuffle, appointing fresh faces across the organisation, from its Mahila, Yuva and OBC morchas to district presidents and State secretaries, ahead of the municipal elections.

Six prominent ministers in the BJP Government — Tapas Roy, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Agnimitra Paul, Dipak Burman, Shankar Ghosh and Indranil Khan — were relieved of their organisational responsibilities in line with the party’s “one individual, one post” principle.

Among the other changes, actor-turned-politician Anjana Basu was named the new State president of the BJP Mahila Morcha. Locket Chatterjee and Bishnupur MP Soumitra Khan were appointed State general secretaries, while Darjeeling MP Raju Bista was made vice-president. The party has retained Sunil Bansal as in-charge of West Bengal, while removing Amit Malviya, who was co-observer of the State. It had recently appointed three new co-observers.

Civic body polls across seven municipal corporations, including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Howrah Municipal Corporation, are likely to take place in November, after the Durga Pujas.

On Monday, Mr. Nabin participated in a number of events, including the “Yuva Samvad Conclave”, where Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari was also present.

Mr. Nabin lauded the Chief Minister for the pace at which he was implementing the new Government’s policies. The BJP president said the West Bengal Government would focus on generating employment opportunities for the State’s youth.

“Around 6,700 companies shut shop in West Bengal during the 15-year Trinamool Congress rule… flight of capital took place during the period. The priority of the BJP Government in the State would be to create an atmosphere to bring in investments,” he said.