The RSS faction and the faction that came to the BJP from the Trinamool Congress have their daggers drawn out against each other putting the Bengal saffron outfit in deep trouble.
Barely a week into the party's disappointing show in the just completed electoral battle the group led by former State party president Dilip Ghosh has held the ruling faction in the State outfit — led by Sukanta Majumdar and Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari — for the party's humiliating defeat at the hands of the TMC. The BJP got 12 seats — down from 18 in 2019 — while the TMC got 29 seats in the general elections.
One seat was won by the Congress. Slamming the leadership for the party's poor show and raising his own issue Ghosh who too lost the polls from Burdwan-Durgapur seat said, "People fight elections to win the lost seats and not to lose the seats already won… we have done so in Bengal," Ghosh a former national vice president of the party said, adding how he was shifted out of Midnapore to Durgapur against his wishes.
"I had dedicated my four years working for the people of Midnapore from where I had won last time… I told them (the leaders) that I want to contest from my own constituency where I had invested my time and money… but I was sent to Durgapur and the result was that we lost both the seats," Ghosh, a former MP from Midnapore said. He also said he was not called in any meetings or any programmes of the party for the past several years.
"I was never called in meetings or party programmes … but I used to maintain my own contact with the people," Ghosh, a former national vice president of the party said.
Taking up the issue of another former MP from Raiganj Debashree Chowdhury who was sent to Kolkata South reportedly against her wishes, Ghosh said, "I had told Debashree that she had done a great job in Raiganj and would definitely win that seat ... but she was sent to Kolkata South where she was a stranger… whereas in Raiganj where she hard all these five years Kartik Paul an insignificant BJP candidate who was a simple ward commissioner of a town won… just because of the good work done by Debashree … this is the way the leadership has worked this time round.
"Ghosh was immediately supported by another party MP Soumitra Khan from Bishnupur who said, "the poor result of our party was because of some kind of setting between the leadership and the TMC which must be found out. "A party MLA from Bankura Niladri Shekhar Dana too slammed the BJP leadership for the poor show complaining how, "Dilip Ghosh has created the BJP in Bengal he took the party from 2 seats to 18 seats in 2019… but all that was lost this time round due to the bad politics of some leaders… you cannot compare anyone with Dilip Ghosh who is like a miniature Himalayas … and see how he and many other leaders were victimised."
There has been a foment inside the party against the style of functioning of the present State leadership led by Suvendu Adhikari and Sukanta Majumdar who had allegedly sidelined the older leaders who had come from the RSS. Incidentally both Adhikari and Majumdar bear TMC origins. Another defeated MP Locket Chatterjee too said that a time had come when things had to be sorted out. "There are things which should not be spoken outside but yes there is a need to go back to the drawing table," she said. Similarly, another BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul who contested and lost to TMC's June Maliya from Midnapore parliamentary seat said "We will introspect on reasons behind loss...perhaps we could not reach out to the people the way we should have … we could not perhaps tell them about the central schemes which is why they were carried away by the TMC's propaganda."Reacting to the criticism from the senior leaders, Bengal State president Sukanta Majumdar said that instead of the projected poor show the BJP had done comparatively better taking a lead in about 100 Assembly seats. "We won 77 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections but have taken a lead in about 100 Assembly segments this time round … this is a good show … I don't know why some leaders are settling their own scores now."
