Bengal BJP’s internal squabble comes out in the open, Rahul Sinha goes public with grouse against party

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s internal squabble has come out in the open in a rather unprecedented way, with Rahul Sinha – one of the longest serving leaders in the party in Bengal – openly criticising the party for ignoring him and favouring “those who have joined the party from Trinamool Congress”. Sinha uploaded a video on his Twitter account threatening to respond to the humiliation within 10-12 days.

The BJP’s internal reshuffle led to replacing Sinha as a national general secretary with former Trinamool Congress MP Anupam Hazra. Another former Trinamool Congress senior leader Mukul Roy was also promoted in the party on Saturday.

“I have served the BJP as a soldier for 40 years. I have to now step aside because of a Trinamool Congress leader. There can be nothing more unfortunate than this reward that I got for serving the BJP since birth,” he said in the video on Twitter. The video messages were uploaded in both Bengali and Hindi languages. “I don’t want to add anything about the reward, except for the fact that in 10-12 days I will say whatever I have to, and announce my future course of action,” Sinha said in the video.

Anupam Hazra was elected Trinamool Congress MP from Bolpur in 2014 but was suspended by the party in January 2019. He joined the BJP after that and was fielded by the party from Jadavpur where he lost against Trinamool Congress’ Mimi Chakraborty in the Lok Sabha polls. About the video uploaded by Rahul Sinha, Anupam Hazra has said that he would speak with Sinha and was sure he would “understand”.

In the reshuffle, Mukul Roy was made a national vice president of the party. There were recent rumours that Roy was likely to re-join the Trinamool Congress as he and the BJP’s state chief Dilip Ghosh are not on good terms. There were talks that Roy was upset for not getting any important position in the party. Under the leadership of the party’s new national president JP Nadda, Roy has now finally got an important position ahead of the Assembly elections in Bengal in 2021. One of the founding members of the Trinamool Congress, Mukul Roy quit the party in October 2017 after differences with chief minister Mamata Banerjee. His son, Subhrangshu Roy, who was a Trinamool Congress MLA, also quit the party in May 2019 after being suspended and joined the BJP.