The position of ‘Panna Pramukh’ is perhaps the most micro role in the BJP’s grand scheme of things, but is often credited for the saffron party’s astounding strike rates.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, Amit Shah was in-charge of Uttar Pradesh where he surprised everyone by ensuring that the BJP got 71 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, helping the party to an absolute majority of 282 seats in the Lower House and bringing Narendra Modi to power. While Shah had travelled 93,000 km over the year in the state and visited 52 districts, his magic mantra was believed to be the concept of ‘Panna Pramukhs’.
The idea was simple – go micro, go personal. Each voter roll has numerous pages. At each booth level, one person was made in-charge of one page of the local voter list. That person was made responsible for maintaining regular contact with all those whose names figure on that single page — often three to five families. They would also be responsible for encouraging the voters to avail welfare measures and facilitate the same. Their duty ended only on the day of the election when voters returned from polling booths.
‘Panna’ translates to ‘page’. Hence, the one in-charge of the page is called ‘Panna Pramukh’.
The BJP has widely deployed this position in two Lok Sabha elections and Assembly elections in Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh among other states. But in West Bengal, it has so far been unable to implement it. Sources, however, say come Lok Sabha polls 2024, the BJP will introduce the concept in Bengal as well.
In his last visit to Bengal towards the end of December 2023, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the state leadership, including state president Susanta Majumder and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, that it was high time Bengal BJP had Panna Pramukhs.
Sources say the nomenclature, however, would be changed to suit Bengali sentiments, with ‘Prishtha Pramukh’ among the options. ‘Panna’ or ‘page’ translates to ‘Prishtha’ in Bengali.
“We are confident that we will do well. Even when we got 18 seats (in 2019 General Elections), we could not recruit so many ‘Panna Pramukhs’. Now we have done that and we believe that it will cross 10 lakh,” said a Bengal BJP source.
But it’s easier said than done.
BJP sources told News18 the party is planning a mega drive through which it will delegate duties to as many as 10 lakh BJP cadres. Not so long ago, the Bengal unit had undertaken a massive drive to “empower booths” across the state. During that drive, more than 1.5 lakh such positions were filled, News18 has learnt. But Shah’s order of filling around 8.5 lakh such positions means a race against time for the West Bengal unit. The total target is 10 lakh Panna Pramukhs.
“While the situation on the ground is far better than it was after the 2021 Assembly poll defeat, many of our active cadres have either left politics for good or switched sides due to fear. In many places, booth committees are not yet ready. It will be particularly difficult in those places to appoint ‘Panna Pramukhs’,” said a BJP State Executive Committee Member, requesting not to be named.
Another BJP MP, who recently was part of Amit Shah’s closed-door meetings, called the target “highly ambitious”. The MP, who also requested anonymity, said that till a few months ago, there were many ‘Shakti Kendras’ that were dysfunctional. Generally, one ‘Shakti Kendra’ can have multiple booths.
But state leaders agree that if the BJP wants to get any closer to its ambitious ‘Mission 35’ in Bengal set by Amit Shah, ‘Panna Pramukhs’ or ‘Prishtha Pramukhs’ are its best bet. West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar has already started campaigning in North Bengal. “We are strong in North Bengal that’s why we have started our campaign preparation from there. We will remain in North Bengal till January 6,” he told News18.
Sources said that the BJP will form a special election management committee next week along with 42 separate constituency committees.
The ruling TMC dismissed the BJP’s battle-plan, saying Sukanta Majumdar should focus on his seat first. “Ask Sukanta to give more time to his own area as he lost his own booth. He has time, he can go anywhere for campaigning, but first he needs to win his own booth,” TMC leader Kunal Ghosh told News18.
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