Maintaining heaviness in the party is the biggest challenge for Bengal BJP
Highlight
- According to sources, there is a distance between party veterans and defectors in the state unit of BJP.
- Bengal assembly election result prompts more leaders to return to TMC
- Suvendu Adhikari is the only turncoat who is still with BJP
The recent return of Arjun Singh, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Barrackpore constituency in North 24 Parganas district, to the Trinamool Congress has left the party’s state unit uneasy. In fact, Arjun Singh was the second veteran leader of the Trinamool Congress, after Mukul Roy, who had joined the BJP in 2019 after being denied a Lok Sabha ticket by the Trinamool. The trend of Trinamool Congress leaders switching to the BJP, which started with Roy and Singh in 2019, escalated ahead of the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, when Trinamool leaders, legislators and ministers such as Suvendu Adhikari, Rajiv Banerjee and Sabyasachi Dutta, among others. Together they joined the saffron camp. ,
Suvendu Adhikari, the only turncoat still with BJP
However, after the thumping victory of the Trinamool Congress in the 2021 assembly elections, the turnaround started. It started with Mukul Roy soon after the results were declared last year, followed by Rajiv Banerjee and Sabyasachi Dutta and finally Arjun Singh was the latest to return to the state’s ruling party on May 22, 2022. Presently, Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly is the only turncoat who is still with the BJP. Apart from the turncoat in the BJP, two-time MP and singer-turned-politician Babul Supriyo and former BJP state vice-president Jayaprakash Majumdar have also joined the ruling party.
Will Nadda’s visit help the state BJP unit?
In such a situation, BJP is anticipating cross voting by a section of the sitting BJP MLAs in the upcoming presidential election. BJP National President JP Nadda is visiting West Bengal in the first half of next month to take stock of the situation. Will Nadda’s visit help the state BJP unit to stop factionalism and exodus of senior leaders? IANS tried to find the answer. A veteran BJP state committee leader in West Bengal, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told IANS that there has been a distance between the party stalwarts and the party stalwarts in the party’s state unit from the very beginning. “However, unfortunately, no initiative has been taken to bridge that gap. Our national president is coming to the state next month after taking full account of the growing differences in ranks on this veteran vs turncoat issue. We hope That our National President will give some clear directions on this issue.” In fact, the BJP’s internal differences on the veteran versus turncoat issue became apparent with the contradictory statements of party national vice president Dilip Ghosh and party’s state general secretary Anupam Hazra on the Arjun Singh issue.
Ghosh did not want to give much importance to the return of Arjun Singh and also questioned the latter’s contribution in developing the organization of the party in West Bengal. “He went back to the Trinamool Congress unable to bear the pressure of the state and police administration. His exit would have no consequences for the party,” Ghosh said. However, Hazra, who joined the BJP from the Trinamool Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, thinks the opposite. He said, “After every incident of exodus, a section of our leaders underestimate the incident and claim that nothing will happen. This is not the right approach. Rather the leadership should introspect why this migration is happening. “
Not everyone in TMC is happy with Arjun Singh’s return
In fact, not everyone in the Trinamool Congress is happy with the return of Arjun Singh, which is evident from his statements on the matter. Veteran Trinamool leader and three-time Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy said Singh’s return will neither benefit nor harm the party. Similarly, three-time party MLA Partha Bhowmik said that when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have approved Singh’s return, he is bound to accept it. According to political analyst Dr Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay, turncoats seldom become a long-term asset for any political party, unless the change in the camp is due to strong ideological ties or an uncompromising approach to social evils like corruption. “The wind in favor of the BJP in West Bengal has intensified since the 2018 state panchayat elections, which prompted leaders like Mukul Roy and Arjun Singh to shift to the BJP in 2019. The wind picked up ahead of the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections and that inspired more leaders to join the BJP. But after the election results were declared, the opposite wind picked up and the return of prodigious leaders began. Now my question is that if the wind turns in favor of BJP then what is the guarantee that these turncoats will not change camp again. Or is there any guarantee that the BJP will welcome him again as it has done before?
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