By Tirthankar Mitra
KOLKATA: Samik Bhattacharya, the newly nominated President of West Bengal unit of BJP is between a rock and a hard place. Fissures threaten to turn into cracks as his maiden address as state party chief pacifying Muslims about his party’s intent towards this community sounded hollow in the wake of leader of the Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari’s loud and clear announcement that the saffron camp can taste electoral triumph in this state based only on Hindu votes.
Hardline Hindutva has been the mainstay of BJP poll plank for years in West Bengal. The leadership saw no reason to change it till Bhattacharya sounded a discordant note trying to reach out to a community his party chose to shun. Their differences notwithstanding, both Majumdar and Adhikari stuck to the hardline Hindutva. Even as the new chief was taking charge, Majumdar chose to hold his cards close to his chest on this issue.
But Adhikari in his characteristic fashion reiterated the hardline on this occasion even as he shared the podium with Bhattacharya. Given such contradictory stances of the top leadership, the BJP which has its number of MPs reduced in 2024 Lok Sabha elections is unlikely to make a turnaround in next year’s Assembly elections. Presently BJP has 65 members in the state assembly as against 77 elected in 2021 assembly elections.
A situation has evolved in the state BJP in which the difference between hardline Hindutva and its soft version has become the talking point. The spat between the old guard and new comers remains but more important before the 2026 assembly polls is the open war of words between the new president of the state party and the powerful leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari who is backed by the party high command, it is learnt.
Sections in the saffron camp are wary about the direction Bhattacharya seeks to steer the state unit. Requesting anonymity, a senior leader said that the situation would help to bring rival camps closer against the new state party chief leading to erosion of its chances of success in next year’s polls.
In sum, it leaves the state BJP a divided house. Given the ideological differences, it is not in the right organisational frame to give ruling Trinamool Congress a run for its money in next year’s Assembly polls.
The state unit of BJP despite having bagged 18 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha polls has been on a downward spiral ever since. Bhatacharya’s predecessor Sukanta Majumdar bearing both the praise and blame for electoral success and the lack of it failed to leave his stamp of functioning. Under his leadership, the party got only 12 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, losing six seats as against the earlier polls.
In fact, internal squabbles told on the electoral prospects of the party with the differences between Majumdar and Adhikari coming out on the open. Results of successive elections like 2021 Assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, both occasions with Majumdar at the helm of affairs were pointers that state BJP unit was directionless. The saffron camp secured 38.73 per cent votes in 2024 election though exit polls predicted a 40.6 per cent vote share. The negative swing cost it six seats and it’s tally slipped to 12 from 18 seats.
Poll debacles apart, the saffron ideology is yet to find too many takers. In Bengal. It failed to play a effective role in the wake of the rape and murder of a lady doctor within RG Kar Medical College and the recent rape of a student in a law college.
Clearly Hindutva ideology which BJP espouses is yet to find substantial number of supporters among the youth and other section of people in Kolkata and its suburbs who can turn the tide against Trinamool dispensation. This is despite BJP being the principal Opposition party in the state Assembly where both Congress and the Left Front representatives are conspicuous by their absence.
Bhattacharya has put his best foot forward to make his appeal more broadbased to a larger section of voters. But several BJP veterans feel his endeavour will not only fail, but also send a wrong message to the core votebank of the party in the state. Bhattacharya has been anointed the state BJP chief unanimously. His appointment was uncontested and had the combined support of his predecessor Majumdar and the LoP, Adhikari.
Having gained prominence during Majumdar’s regime, the national leadership was flooded by allegations against many middle level BJP leaders. A Rajya Sabha member and a veteran RSS activist, Bhattacharya is aware that the presence of such persons can undermine his authority and even sabotage it.
Bhattacharya, sources stated is likely to replace the dead wood and revive the old guard in the party who had been sidelined in the district units and state committee after Majumdar replaced Dilip Ghosh as state unit chief.
These replaced leaders as well as those with their wings clipped are likely to gang up against the new dispensation. Their animosity is going to be a cause of worry to Bhattacharya especially as the 2026 Assembly election is inching closer.
Bhattacharya’s call of forming a grand alliance with CPI(M) and Congress has not gone down well with a major section of the party. It has been rejected by both Congress and the Left, but it has left a bad taste in the mouth for both the saffron rank and file . I Its leadership have waged long ideological and electoral battle against both the outfits with whom the new state BJP seeks to bury differences.
Bhattacharya sang Jyoti Basu’s praise recently. A large section of his party especially the old guard felt that he seems to have forgotten that the late CPI(M) leader often referred to BJP as a “party of barbarians”. (IPA Service)
