Senior party leaders have called upon the state leadership of the party to introspect
Senior party leaders have called upon the state leadership of the party to introspect
Allegations and resignations have once again shook the BJP’s West Bengal unit. defeat in by-election,
On Saturday, the BJP lost the Asansol Lok Sabha seat to the Trinamool Congress by a margin of over 3 lakh votes and finished third in the Ballygunge assembly seat after the Trinamool Congress and the CPI(M).
In the past two days, three party office-bearers have announced their resignations, complaining that the leadership was not taking their views into account. Party MLA Gauri Shankar Ghosh on Sunday resigned from the post of state committee secretary. State party working committee members Bani Ganguly and Dipankar Choudhary have also resigned. Leaders from districts like Murshidabad and Nadia and Jalpiagurui have blamed the state leadership for the defeat of the bypolls.
Two senior leaders, Bishnupur Lok Sabha MP Saumitra Khan and party’s national secretary Anupam Hazra called on the state leadership to introspect.
Khan, who has been vocal for the past two days, said it was the weakness of the BJP more than the strength of the Trinamool that led to its victory in Asansol. He said the state’s leadership is made up of “inexperienced leaders devoid of any political maturity” and sought “medicine from Delhi” to fix things.
Mr. Hazra said that if things continued as they were, “the very existence of the party in West Bengal would be at stake”.
“If we do not discuss our shortcomings, how will we overcome them? When dedicated people abdicate their responsibility, it is not good for the party,” he said.
Responding to these allegations, BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said that there may be differences of opinion among the leaders, but “party discipline is supreme”. The resignation will be investigated. He dismissed the comments of senior leaders as “his personal opinion” and said the party would make a comeback in the upcoming panchayat and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
This is not the first time that BJP leaders in West Bengal have targeted the state leadership after the electoral defeat. The BJP, which emerged as the main opposition party in the state in the 2021 assembly elections, has failed to win a single by-election held after May 2021.
The BJP’s performance in the civic polls has been disappointing and whenever the party loses, a section of its leaders have targeted Mr. Mazumdar and his team. Mr Majumdar, who came to prominence after being elected from Balurghat Lok Sabha seat in 2019, was appointed as the state president in September 2021. A section of party leaders believe that “he lacks the political maturity to lead the BJP in West Bengal”.
Party national vice-president Dilip Ghosh, who had a long five-year stint as state BJP president, called for taking collective responsibility for the electoral loss and said party leaders should refrain from indulging in accusations and counter-accusations.