A section of disgruntled leaders of the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Bongaon MP and Union Minister Shantanu Thakur, organized a picnic in North 24 Parganas on Monday.
The picnic, which is the third meeting of BJP leaders, who are not happy with the recent organizational changes, was intended to send out a message that these leaders will continue with such protests till their demands are met.
Earlier, these leaders had met at Thakurnagar, the headquarters of the Matua Federation by holding a press conference at the Kolkata Port Trust guest house.
Along with Mr Thakur, three MLAs from the Matua community – former party vice-president Jai Prakash Majumdar, Ritesh Tiwari and former general secretary Sayantan Basu – participated in the picnic. A section of Matua leaders is now demanding the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
A few days ago, the refugee cell of the state BJP had issued a press release demanding that the rules of the Act be made without any delay.
Recently, the BJP dissolved all its cells and departments in the face of opposition from this section of disgruntled leaders. The demands include the removal of state unit general secretary Amitav Chakraborty. On Monday, posters were put up in Kolkata demanding the resignation of Mr. Chakraborty.
Party leaders who participated in the picnic said that the event has nothing to do with politics, it is difficult to miss the political message. “You can call it a meeting to discuss strategy. Our aim is to strengthen the hands of our Prime Minister and raise our voice against the way committees were formed without giving representation to us,” Mr Thakur told reporters.
‘proper forum’
Senior BJP leaders of the state, including national vice president Dilip Ghosh and state president Suknata Choudhary, said that the leaders should raise their voices on the appropriate platform.
Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the BJP was divided into different factions of “old, new and migrant BJP workers”.
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