Bypoll rout: Resignations by office-bearers hit state BJP

Ghosh’s resignation wasn’t the only one to rock BJP’s boat on Sunday as its Berhampore MLA Subrata Moitra (Kanchan) also expressed his desire to ‘leave the state party committee’.

Later in the day, two other leaders from Murshidabad district – Bani Gangopdhyay and Dipankar Chowdhury – announced their decision to quit BJP’s district-level working council.

Both the MLAs alleged that the party’s state leadership had not paid any heed to their repeated complaints of ‘inexperienced and undeserving leaders being given charge of running the Murshidabad unit’.

Slamming BJP’s Murshidabad South organisational district president Shankharavh Sarkar, Ghosh said “The present Murshidabad district president is running the unit at his whims and fancies. Responsibilities were given to leaders who were in contact with TMC leaders. We have raised these issues on a number of occasions but nothing was done about it. The state leadership did not pay any heed to our complaints. Therefore, there is no point remaining in the state committee as party’s secretary.”

BJP leader Anupam Hazra said, “What is the real mystery behind the resignations? It is high time the party leadership should think about this with utmost importance. Those who were given importance till now have left the party. Those who actually worked for the party are resigning from their posts.”

The BJP leaders’ resignations come a day after the party’s defeat in the Asansol Lok Sabha and Ballygunge assembly constituency bypolls. In Asansol, former Union minister-turned-TMC candidate Shatrughan Sinha won the Asansol seat by a massive margin of 3,03,209 votes while BJP candidate Agnimitra Paul came a distant second.

In Ballygunge, former Union minister Babul Supriyo, who joined the TMC ahead of the bypoll, won the assembly constituency in south Kolkata by a margin of 20,228 votes.

Soon after the results were announced, BJP MP Saumitra Khan took a dig at the party’s state president Sukanata Majumdar and the party’s state general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakravorty and claimed that the party’s state unit was being run by “inexperienced politicians”.

“When inexperienced politicians run a political party then this kind of result is expected. We are paying the price for it. This is what happens when you don’t have experienced leaders running the party. We have a lot to learn from the TMC. They have shown how best to do politics. … However, we cannot expect electoral results to go our way as long as there are inexperienced leaders in key party posts. They must bring back the expelled leaders back to our party,” Khan had said in a video message on Saturday.

He was referring to former BJP leaders members Jay Prakash Majumdar and Ritesh Tiwari who were expelled from the party in March for ‘anti-party activities”. Majumdar later joined the TMC.

Reacting to the resignations, state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said, “There are people in the party who from time to time try to target the state leadership. Most of the time, they are unsuccessful. In our party, discipline comes first. One may have some issues which they can address with the state leadership. If they remain dissatisfied, then they can reach out to the central leadership. If not satisfied then our party president JP Nadda ji is there. Now, a lot of leaders are resigning from their posts. If they make baseless allegations against the party which hold no water then it raises suspicion. Then it means there is some motive behind their actions.”