“BJP’s only focus is on religious polarisation”, says Rajib Banerjee, after “returning” to Trinamool

Rajib Banerjee, Trinamool Congress’ former minister from West Bengal, who had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the state Assembly polls, “returned” to Trinamool at a public meeting in Tripura. On his return to Kolkata, Banerjee said that he had failed to convince BJP leaders to move away from religious polarisation. “On the contrary, I was told that the BJP will gain ground in this state if the party focuses on religious polarisation,” he said.

Rajib Banerjee, who had contested on a BJP ticket but lost in the Assembly polls, said: “I had told the party leaders many times that the huge increase in the prices of petrol and diesel will have an impact on the party’s support in this state, but the leaders found no solution to this problem affecting lakhs of people”.

He also has grouses on the lack of “organisational focus” of the party in Bengal. “The BJP leaders are only focusing on speeches and violence, there is no organisational strength, no coordination among its leaders,” he said, adding that “no one cares about the well-being of others in the party”. He added that the (now former) Bengal party chief Dilip Ghosh’s comments in the run-up to the Assembly polls, and the “language he used” has been “very damaging to the party’s image in the state”.