Locket Chatterjee is MP from Hooghly BJP MP Locket Chatterjee on Monday purportedly attended a meeting with dissident BJP leaders, during which expelled party leaders Ritesh Tiwari and Joy Prakash Majumdar were also present. The meeting comes against the backdrop of a widening rift in the state BJP between old-timers and new leaders.
The move from the BJP MP from Hooghly came a day after she was apparently criticised by BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh for blaming the party’s state leadership for the debacle in the recently-concluded civic elections, instead of shouldering their responsibilities.
A picture of the purported meeting has been shared on social media where is seen sitting with Majumdar, Tiwari and sidelined party leaders Sayantan Basu, Raju Banerjee and Samiran Saha at an undisclosed location in Kolkata. A leader who attended the meeting said: “The meeting was held to discuss our strategy for the future. The inexperienced state leadership is inept to take the party further. They have removed dedicated and worthy leaders from the state committee. That’s why the party is paying a heavy price in elections after elections. In the days to come, we dissident leaders will hit the street against this leadership.” Chatterjee was however not available for comment on the meeting. The state BJP leadership also did not comment on the matter.
During an internal meeting of the party on Saturday, Chatterjee reportedly said that instead of holding TMC and its “electoral malpractices” responsible, the BJP state unit should introspect to find out the reasons for its poor performance in elections after the Assembly polls last year.
Speaking with mediapersons on Sunday, Dilip Ghosh, without naming anyone, said, “It is very easy to make such comments and pass the blames to others. Those who went missing from the field during elections and did not shoulder their responsibilities are making such baseless comments. They are now blaming the party. But what have they done for the party, recently?”
Meanwhile, Locket Chatterjee expressed her displeasure after a new organisational district committee for Hooghly was announced on Monday. Chatterjee said she was kept in the dark by state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar and state general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakravorty while finalising the committee.
“I will not be held responsible for the functioning of this new committee. I was not consulted by Amitava Chakravorty while drafting the committee. Therefore, I have no association with this committee,” Chatterjee told reporters.
Reacting to the development, state BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, “It is purely an organisational matter.”
TMC workers tried to block my convoy: BJP state chief
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar on Monday alleged that TMC workers tried to block and attack his convoy in Mathurapur in South 24 Parganas district. Majumdar posted a video of the incident on Twitter where a large group of people were seen waving black flags to him while stopping the vehicle. In a tweet, Majumdar wrote that the TMC would “fail in their attempts to “stop BJP by such attacks.” He tagged party leaders including BJP president JP Nadda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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