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Dissident Bengal BJP leaders resurface for ex-state president’s poll campaign
Several dissident BJP leaders from across Bengal are campaigning for the party’s former state president Dilip Ghosh’s election campaign in Burdwan-Durgapur Lok Sabha constituency
Several leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s West Bengal unit who turned dissidents after being stripped of important portfolios during a 2021 reshuffle have surfaced at the Burdwan-Durgapur Lok Sabha constituency located in the heart of the state’s iron and steel industry hub to campaign for Dilip Ghosh, the party’s former state president.
Like Ghosh, who was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak (campaigner) since 1984 before joining the Bengal BJP in 2015, some of these leaders also have an RSS background. The contest in Burdwan is also being seen as a contest between the old and new BJP in West Bengal.
Of the seven assembly segments in the Burdwan-Durgapur constituency, the Trinamool Congress won six in the 2021 state polls. The BJP wrested only the Durgapur West seat.
“I am among many leaders who are campaigning for Dilip Da (elder brother). The TMC has fielded Kirti Azad (former cricketer) but he stands no chance. Our real contest with the TMC will be at the Bhatar and Manteswar assembly segments,” said Sayantan Basu, former BJP state general secretary.
“Many old leaders from across Bengal are campaigning for Dilip Da because BJP workers in Burdwan-Durgapur constituency have not handled the campaign professionally. The polls will be held on May 13. There is no time to waste,” a second old loyalist of Ghosh told HT on condition of anonymity.
He refused to comment on the allegations of sabotage by a section of local BJP leaders, a subject being discussed in hushed tones at Durgapur town.
Ghosh, who was appointed state president twice since 2014, was replaced by national president J P Nadda in September 2021, a year before his second three-year term ended, although the BJP created a record during Ghosh’s tenure by bagging 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 polls. Amid allegations that leaders who had come from the TMC were being given more importance, Ghosh was made a national vice-president, but he lost that portfolio too last year.
When the BJP finalised the candidates’ list for the ongoing election, Ghosh, the outgoing MP from the Midnapore seat, his home ground, was fielded from Asansol-Durgapur, which former Union minister of state S S Ahluwalia won in 2019 by only 2,439 votes over TMC.
This year, Ahluwalia has been fielded from the adjacent Asansol segment, his place of birth, against actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who joined the TMC in 2022.
In September 2021, Sukanta Majumdar, the Lok Sabha member from north Bengal’s Balurghat and a former RSS pracharak like Ghosh, was made the BJP state president.
Two months later, Majumdar announced the names of 11 new vice-presidents, five general secretaries and 12 secretaries alongside seven new morcha (front) presidents and heads of departments such as media, information technology and social media, triggering a furor. New spokespersons and television show panelists were also appointed.
Veterans such as Pratap Banerjee, Biswapriyo Roy Chowdhury, Union minister of state Subhas Sarkar, Raj Kamal Pathak, Debasish Mitra, Ritesh Tiwari, Raju Banerjee and Jay Prakash Majumdar were dropped from the panel of vice-presidents. Tiwari was suspended for speaking in public against the new leadership. A known hardliner, general secretary Sayantan Basu was dropped as well.
Only Majumdar, who started his political career with the Congress, joined the TMC. The rest stayed away from limelight for the last three years.
Bengal BJP chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya, who has a strong RSS background spanning over 50 years, admitted that many of the old leaders are campaigning for Ghosh.
“I campaigned there too earlier this week. Ghosh will win. The TMC has organisation strength but not popular mandate. We appeal to the Congress and the CPI(M) as well to fight the TMC in Burdwan-Durgapur,” said Bhattacharya.
Majumdar, who is now a TMC state vice-president, said: “The old horses of the BJP have rushed to Ghosh’s help because he is their last hope. It is an uphill task. Ghosh’s own party has shifted him from his stronghold. The result of this constituency will bring the Bengal BJP’s Dilip Ghosh era to an end.”
