An attempt to portray “all is well” within the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal by state unit president Sukanta Majumdar and his predecessor Dilip Ghosh boomeranged on Friday after two factions clashed with each other in their presence, leaving top leaders in an embarrassing situation.
After losing the assembly polls this year in West Bengal to the ruling Trinamool Congress, the state BJP has been facing tough times with the party witnessing an exodus of workers, leaders and lawmakers towards the TMC.
A host of top leaders such as Mukul Roy, his son Subhranshu, Babul Supriyo, Sabyasachi Dutta, Soumen Roy, Biswajit Roy and Manotosh Roy have switched from the BJP to Trinamool in recent days. Since then the saffron party has intensified its outreach programme among its leaders and workers to curb desertions.
Among the strategies in play, Majumdar and Ghosh have decided to tour various districts of Bengal and chair joint organisational meetings under the banner of ‘Jansampark Abhiyan’.
However, one such attempt at Daihat in Katwa, East Burdwan, left them in a mortifying situation after a faction of party members started raising “Go back Dilip Ghosh” slogans and some made objectionable comments against Majumdar.
The situation turned bitter when two groups clashed and broke chairs in front of Dilip Ghosh and Sukanta Majumdar who were sitting on the dais along with other party leaders.
A visibly annoyed Ghosh and Majumdar were seen trying to bring the situation under control but the protesters continued to raise slogans. They alleged that the state BJP leadership turned away from them when they were purportedly beaten up and terrorised by TMC workers after the assembly poll results came out on May 2.
“When we were assaulted and threatened by the TMC goons…the district leaders were sitting inside their houses. No one came to our rescue,” one of the protesters was heard shouting at Ghosh and Majumdar.
While speaking to the media, Sukanta Majumdar said those who prompted the chaos appeared to be outsiders. “True BJP workers will not create such ruckus in front of the portraits of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee (founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor of BJP). We will find out who these people are and if at all they belong to my party then disciplinary action will be taken,” he said.
Dilip Ghosh said, “Many TMC leaders joined us before the assembly polls for their vested interest and now after the election results they want to go back to their previous party. We are not bothered about such people because we believe that a true BJP worker will never quit the party.”
It was learnt that the situation was brought under control after the intervention of a few local leaders.
TMC state general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “Such clashes and discontent among the party workers are nothing new in the BJP. The local leaders and ground-level workers are angry over the attitude of senior BJP leaders because they were left alone to suffer after the assembly poll results. I am sure in the future the BJP in Bengal will crumble like a pack of cards.”
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