BJP Bengal leaders raise voice against party after Assembly poll losses

West Bengal leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been raising voices against the party following the loss in the state’s recently concluded polls. The major disgruntlement has come from those who have joined the BJP from the Trinamool Congress in the past one year. Added to this has been the absence of BJP Vice-President Mukul Roy from a party meet in Kolkata called by state chief Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday.

Roy has been unwell after he tested positive for COVID-19, but there are whispers and speculations that this is not the sole reason. The speculations are also because Roy is silent about his son Shubrangshu making some comments recently, in which he has spoken of the need to “look inward” instead of criticising a party that has come to power with huge mandate of the people. Later he also spoke with the media and did not rule out a return to Trinamool Congress.

The Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, however, has not taken a decision whether or not those who had left the party for the BJP would be taken back. There are talks that 35 BJP MLAs are eager to return and are in touch with the leadership.

Other than Subhrangshu Roy, another former Trinamool leader now with the BJP, former minister Rajib Banerjee took to social media questioning the BJP’s “threats” on President’s rule in Bengal. He said that the people of Bengal won’t take it well and added that the party should focus on working towards improving the COVID-19 situation and the aftermath of Cyclone Yaas.

Meanwhile, at the BJP meeting called by Ghosh, former Trinamool leaders such as Arjun Singh and Sabyasachi Dutta voiced their disappointment in the party’s “wrong strategies” and “excessive” focus on Central leadership that they considered reasons for the party’s poor show. Sabyasachi Dutta meanwhile, said: “Getting leaders who can’t speak Bengali to run the campaign was a mistake.”

Leader of Opposition, BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, meanwhile, called on Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda in Delhi. Two MPs, Arjun Singh and Saumitra Khan, are also Delhi-bound for meetings to “review” the current situation of the party in Bengal and the BJP’s subsequent moves.