There is widespread resentment in the party as 150 out of 289, whose names have been released, had no association with the BJP till sometimes back
Soroor Ahmed | Clarion India
THE stiff resistance by the old guards of the Bharatiya Janata Party towards the turncoats from other parties, most prominently the Trinamool Congress, has the potential to jeopardise the Assam-type plan for West Bengal of the central leadership of the party.
The magnitude of the revolt in the West Bengal unit can be measured from the following facts: Of all the persons, the party was compelled to withdraw the candidature of former Chief Economic Advisor of India, Ashok Lahiri, from Alipurduar Assembly seat. In his place the party gave ticket to general secretary of the Alipurduar district unit of the BJP, Suman Kanjilal.
Elsewhere in the state the party offices have been ransacked and even former Union railway minister Mukul Roy and West Bengal unit vice president Arjun Singh, MP, were heckled. Both of them were in the Trinamool Congress before the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.
There is widespread resentment in the party as 150 out of 289, whose names have been released, had no association with the BJP till sometimes back. They were either in TMC or other parties.
West Bengal is not the only state where the BJP has come to power on the basis of the support from turncoats from other parties. In fact, in Assam both the chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and deputy chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma were, till not too far back, the leading lights of the Asom Gana Parishad and Congress respectively. Sonowal, who was the president of All Assam Students’ Union between 1992 and 1999, was in the AGP till as late as 2011.
Sarma, an ambitious Congress leader eying to replace the then chief minister Tarun Gogoi, joined the BJP on August 29, 2015, that is just eight months before the 2016 Assembly election.
As the BJP was organisationally weak in Assam it took all these leaders in its fold and succeeded in winning the 2016 election. The party has adopted such a strategy in several other states, especially in the North-East.
But in West Bengal, the whole plan appears to have run into rough weather. This is largely because the central leadership failed to read the real mood of the old guards, who are more keen on fighting the Trinamool Congress (Turncoat) than Trinamool Congress (Mamata). At the grassroots level, perhaps they had little complaint against Mamata herself than many of her close lieutenants, who were engaged in all sorts of misdeeds. Now the same whole lot have crossed over to the BJP. Like in Assam and elsewhere in the country, these deserters from different parties thought that they would become Sonowal or Sarma of West Bengal.
Take the case of Suvendhu Adhikari, the then powerful minister in Mamata Banerjee government. As reported earlier by this correspondent Suvendhu’s clout was so strong on the TMC that he got Lok Sabha ticket for his father and brother from two different parliamentary constituencies. His father Sisir, who is now planning to join the BJP, had even served as the minister of state for rural development in the second term of Manmohan Singh government. Another brother of Suvendhu is the chairman of Contai Municipality.
Many of those who have joined the BJP are tainted leaders whose names figured in some scams or irregularities or are inefficient and too old.
For instance, Rabindranath Bhattacharya, almost 90, got the BJP ticket from Singur when he was rejected by the TMC on grounds of old age. He was earlier a TMC minister too. Besides, the BJP has fielded a number of candidates who are not even in the party or have no base whatsoever.
The common refrain of the original rank and file is that they have been overlooked even though they have been in the party for the last two to three decades. They are openly asking as to where is the need to give ticket to five MPs—four of Lok Sabha and one of Rajya Sabha. The Upper House MP, Swapan Dasgupta, had to resign from parliament in a hurry after the TMC MP Mahua Moitra pointed out that the noted columnist is not even a member of the BJP.
The manner in which tickets were given to Shikha Mitra Choudhary, the widow of the former West Bengal unit president of the Congress, Somendranath Mitra, and to Tarun Saha, husband of TMC MLA, Mala Saha, was simply shocking and exposed the anarchy within the saffron brigade. Both Shikha and Tarun rejected the offer on the plea that they are not even members of the BJP and had never sought ticket.
The old loyalists are of the view that by fielding so many sitting MPs, including Union minister Babul Supriyo, the party had sent a wrong signal.
It is somewhat strange that a personality like Ashok Lahiri had to face such a humiliation at the hands of district unit party workers. Similarly, the announcement of the nominated MP of Rajya Sabha, Swapan Dasgupta, openly exposed the lack of homework done by the saffron party. At several places the old guards have vowed to contest as rebel or Independent even if their presence in the fray facilitates the victory of TMC.
Curiously, the Assembly election may be followed by Lok Sabha by-poll in many seats of West Bengal. If all the four BJP MPs win, the Lok Sabha seats would get vacated. With Suvendhu’s father and brother, both sitting MPs of TMC, about to join the BJP, they are bound to lose their membership of Lok Sabha. Another TMC MP Sunil Kumar Mondal joined the saffron party a couple of months back.
Needless to mention about the resignation of Swapan Dasgupta as well as TMC Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Trivedi who have now jumped on the Narendra Modi bandwagon.
