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BJP’s defeat in Bengal by-polls triggers rumblings against leadership
Senior BJP leaders said state general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakraborty has been summoned to Delhi next week by central leaders who are unhappy with the by-poll results, especially the loss of the Asansol seat which has reduced the party’s Lok Sabha tally in Bengal from 18 to 17.
Rumblings against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Bengal leadership has resurfaced after the party’s defeat in the by-polls at Kolkata’s Ballygunge assembly seat and West Burdwan district’s Asansol Lok Sabha segment on Saturday.
Both seats were won by former BJP leaders who are now with the Trinamool Congress (TMC). While Ballygunge is a known TMC bastion, the Asansol Lok Sabha seat has been won by the ruling party for the first time since Independence. It was in control of the Left till BJP’s Babul Supriyo wrested it 2014 and retained it 2019.
Supriyo, who joined the TMC last year after being dropped from the Narendra Modi government, won from Ballygunge while the BJP’s Keya Ghosh forfeited her election deposit. The polls were held because minister Subrata Mukherjee, who held the seat, died in November.
The Asansol Lok Sabha seat that Supriyo vacated was won by actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha who was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Sinha won the seat by more than three lakh votes, defeating his nearest rival, local BJP legislator Agnimitra Paul.
Senior BJP leaders said state general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakraborty has been summoned to Delhi next week by central leaders who are unhappy with the by-poll results, especially the loss of the Asansol seat which has reduced the party’s Lok Sabha tally in Bengal from 18 to 17.
Causing embarrassment for the leadership, state vice-president and Lok Sabha member Saumitra Khan, who was earlier with the TMC, said, “The inexperienced leaders we currently have in Bengal are responsible for the poor show. There is much to learn from the TMC.”
Amitava Chakravorty was not available for comment.
Resentment was voiced by district leaders as well.
Gauri Shankar Ghosh, a legislator from Murshidabad district, resigned from the post of state general secretary on Saturday accusing the party of putting inefficient people in leadership roles.
“I am not leaving the BJP. I am stepping down as general secretary because my decisions are of no consequence,” Ghosh said.
In Nadia district, as many as 10 leaders also stepped down on Saturday citing similar reasons.
“We will talk to those who have stepped down and discuss their grievances,” said BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar who was targeted by critics after massive organisational changes were made in December last year.
Describing Saumitra Khan’s criticism as his personal opinion, Majumdar said: “He (Khan) should remember that the observer for these by-polls was Suvendu Adhikari and the co-observer was Arjun Singh.”
Both Adhikari and Singh were senior TMC leaders before they switched sides like Khan.
In February, the BJP’s defeat in the civic polls at four of Bengal’s biggest cities - Salt Lake, Asansol, Chandannagar and Siliguri - triggered rumblings even as the state leadership alleged that TMC won 198 of the 226 seats in the four municipal corporations by resorting to electoral malpractice. The BJP could win only 12 seats followed by seven won by the Left Front, five by the Congress and four by independent candidates.
These defeats came barely two months after the TMC won the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls with absolute majority.
Jay Prakash Majumdar and Ritesh Tiwari, the two former state presidents who were suspended in January for speaking against the leadership, upped the ante in February and said Bengal BJP is paying the price for sidelining old-timers and experienced leaders.
Bashir Alam, vice-president of the state minority morcha (cell) resigned from the party and Majumdar joined the TMC.
