WhatsApp rebellion continued in Bengal BJP with the rebel faction of the State party unit holding secret meetings with at least 30 saffron MLAs, inside sources said adding the leaders met virtually on Tuesday to chalk out future plans.
Curiously the rebel faction of the party is being led by junior Union Minister Shantanu Thakur who has already threatened to launch a movement for implantation of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
According to sources the rebel faction of the State BJP unit ---including former State vice president Jayprakash Majumdar, RiteshTewari, Saytanan Basu --- held a secret meeting with the 30 legislators “to know their views about the new office bearers who hadbeen inducted in the State unit of the party.”
Out of the 77 seats won by the Bengal BJP in this year’s election it lost 5 to the ruling TMC on account of resignations and defection.
The rebel leaders are likely to hold meeting with the BJP MLAs of Bankura and Purulia later this week before taking a ‘final decision’.
On what the final decision could be one of the senior leaders of the rebel group said “this does not mean that we are quitting the party and going to the Trinamool Congress … we want the party State unit to function properly … we want to save the BJP from dissolution in Bengal as some of the leaders are trying to do … these leaders are sold out to the TMC leadership… they are hand-in-glove with the Trinamool which is why they are misleading the national leadership into taking decisions not favourable to the party in Bengal.”
Some rebel leaders were likely to visit Delhi where later this month may meet national functionaries, sources said. “We will tell how some of the leaders are trying to sell out the party to the TMC,” one of the leaders said apparently aiming at former BJP State presidentand national vice president Dilip Ghosh.The Bengal BJP underwent a massive reshuffle last month with a numberof leaders losing their jobs giving way to new faces. Many leaders see Ghosh’s hand in the reshuffle.
The rebellion had started about a month ago when one after the otherat least 10 MLAs from North 24 Parganas and Bankura left the designated party WhatsApp group.
When asked, Ghosh said he was not concerned with what was going on inWhatsApp. “I am a man of the people and don’t get much time to peepinto what is happening in the WhatsApp,” he said.