BJP chief JP Nadda launches 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' campaign in West Bengal

New Delhi: With an eye on Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal, the BJP on Thursday launched the 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla' campaign to unseat the ruling Trinamool Congress government from power in the state.

BJP president J P Nadda, who had arrived in the state on Wednesday night, launched the campaign along with an election manifesto crowdsourcing campaign in West Bengal.

Launching Lokkho Sonar Bangla manifesto crowdsourcing campaign in Kolkata. https://t.co/m8ExpCEOAX — Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) February 25, 2021

State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and the party's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya were also present on the occasion.

West Bengal: BJP national president JP Nadda launches 'Lokkho Sonar Bangla (manifesto) crowdsourcing campaign', in Kolkata.

State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and party's National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya also present on the occasion. pic.twitter.com/tnfblr68ro — ANI (@ANI) February 25, 2021

"We'll accept over 2 crore suggestions from people. We'll make available approx 30,000 suggestion boxes across WB. Around 100 boxes will be kept in 294 assembly constituencies. Our workers will go from door to door with 50 boxes and 50 will be placed at strategic locations,'' the BJP chief said.

This campaign will go on from 3rd to 20th March in every Vidhan Sabha constituency, the BJP chief said in Kolkata. "We're making efforts to work towards making 'Sonar Bangla', with the inclusion of contributions of Swami Vivekanand, Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Syama Prasad Mukherjee, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in prestigious history of WB.'' the BJP chief said.

Nadda said, ''There are around 10 crore farmers in the country, of these around 73 lakhs are in Bengal itself. 7 installments of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi have already been released but the farmers of Bengal have remained deprived of it.''

According to a statement released by the party, Nadda will address a conference of the intelligentsia, among his other engagements during a daylong stay in the poll-bound state.

BJP's national media in-charge Anil Baluni had earlier said, “JP Nadda will launch the "Lokkho Sonar Bangla Manifesto Crowdsourcing" programme on Thursday.’’

Baluni said this while referring to the party's poll promise of rebuilding the state as "Sonar Bangla". The BJP chief will also pay tributes to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the composer of Vande Mataram, at his residence and museum.

Nadda's programme schedule includes lunch at the house of a jute mill labourer and prayers at the Anandpuri Kalibari temple, followed by a "Parivartan Yatra" rally. In the evening, he will visit the ancestral home of renowned Bengali writer Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay to pay his tributes, followed by a visit to the West Bengal State Armed Police headquarters to pay homage to the martyr Mangal Pandey pillar, the statement said. 

The party will seek suggestions from two crore people in West Bengal for its election manifesto ahead of the Assembly polls. Through this campaign, the BJP will directly engage with the citizens of West Bengal in crafting a vision for the state for the next five years by inviting them to give their suggestions.

"Two crore suggestions will be collected by the party and will be used in the creation of the BJP's manifesto for West Bengal," the party said. The saffron party will use 294 specially designed LED ‘raths’, one for each Assembly constituency of the state.

"Suggestions will be collected through 294 LED `raths` travelling the entire state and suggestion boxes will be placed in each of these vehicles along with a mobile or tablet to video record people's aspirations," BJP leader Amit Malviya said.

About 30,000 suggestion boxes will be placed across the state (100 in every constituency) to reach out to citizens in every corner of the states. "People can give a missed call on 9727-294-294 and record their aspirations. Citizens can also send their suggestions via Whatsapp or SMS on this number. They can also visit the specially designed website for the purpose or send their suggestions via email," he said.

For the `Lokkho Sonar Bangla` campaign to collect suggestions from the people for its manifesto, the BJP also held meetings with representatives of different communities. In recent times, the BJP had sought suggestions before preparing its election manifesto. For the 2019 general election, the BJP crowdsourced suggestions for its manifesto. In the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls also the BJP took suggestions from common people.

Polls for 294 seats in the West Bengal Assembly will be held in April-May. The BJP, riding high on its success in the last general election in the state, is leaving no stone unturned to uproot the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government.

In 2019, the BJP won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal.