GUWAHATI, Aug 10 � The Senior Members� Forum of BJP, Guwahati city, submitted a memorandum to BJP national president Nitin Gadkari during his recent visit, calling for a change in the party leadership in the State in view of the �inability of the leadership to lead the party.�
The Forum which include senior members Mukul Barkataky and Dr Lokendra P Deka as conveners also sought Gadkari�s intervention in �overhauling and restructuring of the party office-bearers.�
Attributing the party�s poor show in the recent Assembly polls to a number of factors including lack of leadership, growing sycophancy within the party folds, arbitrary selection of candidates, etc., the Forum said that the choice of Ranjit Dutta as party president was not unanimous and that it was backed by a strong coterie having links with another coterie in New Delhi.
The Forum said that the so-called leaders made decisions at different levels without taking into consideration the experience and wisdom of the senior members.
�The coterie, by applying various means, had been able to influence the central observers to select their candidates having no connection with grassroots people. Tickets were given without verifying the winnable capacity of the candidates,� it said, adding that the situation exposed excessive greed for money and internal bickerings.
The Forum further said that organisational build-up from the booth level was missing, with leaders involved more with desk work in party offices than working out a practical strategy on the ground.
�Over and above the party could not attract the middle class to its fold, which was more pronounced in the case of the young people who had benefitted post-reforms in terms of better opportunities, jobs and incomes,� it said, adding that unlike the Congress, the BJP did not have any strategy to woo the rural voters, including women.
Asserting that the present State president should go, the Forum also called for a thorough restructuring of the party warranting changes in office-bearers including the two organizational general secretaries.
