The WhatsApp rebellion tended to continue in the Bengal BJP with yet another senior State leader quitting the party WhatsApp group. Shankudeb Panda a senior State Yuva Morcha functionary on Sunday quitting the WhatsApp group days after party MP and Union Minister Shantanu Thakur doing the same along with five other BJP MLAs apparently to express his displeasure at being ignored in the party organisational reshuffle.
When asked Panda a former Mukul Roy confidant who quit the TrinamoolCongress to join the BJP however said that he had left the group as he had crossed the age of 35. “The party will soon bring in new leadership to for the Yuva Morcha and definitely accommodate me somewhere else,” Panda said refusing to dwell further on the matter.
At least 11 MLAs and an MP have left various WhatsApp organizationalgroups in the past one month --- particularly after the State committee was reshuffled post party’s debacle in the recently held Assembly by-elections and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls.
Reacting to the latest ‘rebellion’ State BJP vice president Jayaprakash Majumdar said that though Panda was a well-known face in the party he had not been taking active role in the party affairs in the recent months … hence party will not be able to comment on steps that are being taken by him.”
Pooh-pooing the state of affairs in the BJP, senior Trinamool Congress MP Saugato Roy said that “leaders like Panda had gone to the BJP either out of greed or fear … but now they are quitting that party or dissociating themselves … soon they will be left with no leader.”
When contacted another rebel MLA and actor Hiran Mukherjee said “it is more important to be seen working for the people and the youth of Kharagpur from where I have been elected instead of being seen in the groups.” He too had left the WhatsApp group a few days ago.