Bengal BJP to crowdsource poll manifesto, announces drive till Feb 18

Kolkata: With assembly polls in a few months, Bengal BJP on Saturday announced a drive till Feb 18 to crowdsource its election manifesto. Trinamool wasted little time in dubbing it a "lazy outsourcing".

Crowdsourcing poll manifestos, using both offline and online mediums, had debuted nationwide in the past decade and is now used by all parties — including Trinamool, Congress and CPM — to drive their poll strategies. It allows for more participation and people-driven policies instead of the top-down approach.


DMK announced a similar drive in Tamil Nadu in Jan, introducing, for the first time, an AI-powered portal to populate people's responses. Along with Bengal, assembly elections are also scheduled in Tamil Nadu.

Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said: "Starting today, this drive will continue till Feb 18. There will be 1,000 drop boxes statewide where people can give their suggestions. There will be a toll free helpline 9727294294, an email ID and even a QR code to scan and send these suggestions. People can write letters to BJP's party offices too."

Interestingly, Tapas Ray, a former TMC MLA who defected to BJP, will chair the manifesto drafting committee, which will also include economist and MLA Ashok Lahiri and former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta.

"With due respect to the others, it is now proven that there is a (political) binary in Bengal in which only BJP can only take on Trinamool. The rest (parties) are irrelevant. Over 2.4 crore people had voted for BJP in Bengal. We would also urge the others (non-voters) to step forward and air your views," Bhattacharya reasoned.

Inviting people to "help shape our poll pledges", he added: "Change is inevitable. One political hegemony has been replaced by another in Bengal. Our focus will be heavy industry, improved law and order, insulating the judiciary from external pressure and generating employment."

TMC reacted with sarcasm. The party's Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien said: "This isn't crowdsourcing but lazy outsourcing. PM Narendra Modi's BJP has even outsourced its governance to Delhi. They are now like students who only try to study just before their examinations. We do it all year. For the past 15 years BJP has done nothing and only deprived Bengal. Now, in election season, they are resorting to stunts and gimmicks. But it is too late now. People in Bengal have made up their mind. They will bring back Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool with a thumping majority."

O'Brien has been a key member of TMC's manifesto drafting teams over the years.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh reacted with a question. "Why only 1,000 drop boxes in Bengal? Can't they arrange for more? Bengal is a big state."

"Let them settle the old issues first, and then speak of new ones (in their manifesto). Let them explain first why after their drubbing in the 2021 assembly polls, they unilaterally stopped the 100-days job scheme in Bengal, why have they blocked funds for rural housing, roads and even water," Ghosh added.