The Bengal BJP on Saturday started putting up 1,000 drop boxes across the state to better understand what people want from a new government in a bid to gather suggestions for its Sankalpa Patra or election manifesto.

Samik Bhattacharya, the state unit party president, also launched a toll-free number and a website and urged people to write letters to the party headquarters with suggestions for the BJP poll manifesto.

The drop boxes will be placed across districts until February 18. The party will organise a special drive in Calcutta on February 17 and 18 to popularise this collection of suggestions as people from across Bengal visit the state capital for various reasons.

“At least 2.38 crore people voted for us in the last election (the 2024 Lok Sabha polls). A binary has been established in Bengal that if any party can defeat the Trinamool Congress, it is the BJP. Those who took part in the ‘No vote to BJP’ drive in 2021 will be part of ‘No vote to TMC’ this time. At a time when change in Bengal is obvious, I request all people of Bengal to drop their suggestions,” said Bhattacharya, also a BJP Rajya Sabha member.

“From today to February 18, a total of 1,000 drop boxes will be placed across Bengal. Our team members, including former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, manifesto committee chairman Tapas Roy, and the state's chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar, will visit different districts during this period to collect suggestions from all our 43 organisational districts,” he added.

The decision to keep an ear to the ground regarding voters' expectations from the BJP is significant at a time when chief minister Mamata Banerjee has launched multiple social welfare schemes and enhanced allowances under several projects, including her flagship Lakshmir Bhandar.

A day after Mamata increased the Lakshmir Bhandar dole by ₹500, the revised amount was deposited. Trinamool has already launched a campaign, releasing videos on how women are happy with the hike.

To counter it, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has already announced that if the BJP comes to power in Bengal, it would provide ₹3,000 a month to women in the state under a new scheme.

“Now we need to know what people actually want. We need to understand what the people of Bengal want beyond what Mamata Banerjee has promised. This direct contact will certainly help us to come up with an election manifesto of people’s wishes,” said a BJP source.

Asked to comment on the BJP's direct-contact plan to formulate its poll manifesto, Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh was dismissive.

“The old guard and newcomers in the Bengal BJP will certainly lodge allegations against each other in those drop boxes. However, people of the state should definitely fill the BJP drop boxes with their grievances of central deprivation (of Bengal),” said Ghosh.