By Tirthankar Mitra
KOLKATA: West Bengal unit of BJP is yet to get its act together even as Assembly elections are inching forward in West Bengal. The wraps over an unwieldy organisation in the state came off before the party’s national president, Nitin Nabin when he was in Kolkata this week to oversee the poll campaign this week.
The BJP President found an unpleasant surprise awaiting him as he started going through the performance of the leaders from outside the state. Given their experience in previous elections, these leaders have been deployed to add momentum and thrust to the ongoing campaign of BJP in West Bengal.
But sources in the saffron camp stated these leaders rather than staying put with the candidates and party activists are “relaxing” in air-conditioned comfort of their hotel rooms. Lolling away from the heat and dust of the campaign trail, these leaders are sending optimistic reports about the drive to ensure that electoral success courts the party nominees.
Some of these leaders are not even staying in the state, sources stated. They are issuing instructions to the rank and file even though they are away from the scene of action, it was learnt.
The fallout of the action of these “absentee leaders” have adversely affected the campaign, especially in constituencies in which newcomers have been fielded. For neither the candidate nor his/her followers can lodge their protest to the party authority outranking the “absentee leaders”.
Star candidates like Suvendu Adhikari, Dilip Ghosh or Agnimitra Paul do not suffer from this handicap. They conduct their campaigns on their own steam. As for the leaders from outside the state, they seem to. be overruling their local counterparts. But since they are unaware of the local ground realities, the campaign is being retarded.
Factionalism raised its head at Nabin’s meeting. Even as BJP’s national head was reading the riot act to some of the erring leaders, he found former state unit chief, Sukanta Majumdar to be absent.
Apparently, Majumdar, a Union minister of state who has been campaigning far and wide in this election has not been invited to this crucial meeting. Majumdar’s absence from the .meeting sends a wrong signal at a time when the national leadership of the saffron camp is sending a message to close ranks,
Moreover, discontent is brewing in the saffron ranks over the distribution of election nomination. A meeting of Nitin Nabin scheduled to be held at Salt Lake party office was shifted to a hotel apprehending a noisy protest from activists who have been denied nomination.
Incidents of protest by activists aspiring for BJP nomination have been reported from the districts. There have been roadblocks with burning tyres. Protests erupted at a BJP party office in Udaynarayanpur, Howrah. Its ransacking has been reported to the national party chief.
To .make matters worse, Nabin is also faced with a problem of “trust deficit’ between local leaders and those from outside the state. It can be traced to installation of close circuit cameras and sound recording system in district party offices.
This has been reported from Burdwan. Local leaders have pointed out that this “watching procedure” will not help in coordination between them and those from outside the state.
Leaders from outside the state are thus keeping tabs on the local leadership. The situation will add to the rift between the local leaders and their counterparts from outside brought to assist the local leaders.
Moreover, it would convey a situation of credibility gap in the saffron camp to the voters. The situation would hardly be conducive to make the people express their support for the BJP in the coming elections, a state leader requesting anonymity said. (IPA Service)
