By Tirthankar Mitra
KOLKATA: With Assembly election in West Bengal less than three months away, a new state committee of BJP being put in place makes the endeavour an instance of doing too little too late. The most notable face conspicuous by its absence is former state chief Dilip Ghosh whose induction would have certainly raised the morale of grassroot activists. ..
Ghosh had been the most successful state unit chief of the saffron camp till date. It was under his leadership the BJP posed a serious threat of to Trinamool Congress dispensation in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
A veteran RSS activist, Ghosh had his ear to the ground. Besides he possessed the winner’s luck defeating octogenarian Congress leader Gyan Singh Sohan Pal in Assembly elections.
Thereafter, Ghosh led the saffron charge in 2019 Lok Sabha polls in which BJP won in 18 parliamentary constituencies in West Bengal. It was at this point of time when he was replaced by Sukanta Majumdar and the growth of saffron camp together with its electoral fortune went into decline.
Rajya Sabha MP Shamik Bhattacharya replacing Majumdar as state unit chief had raised hopes of Ghosh’s political rehabilitation especially as the former was all for bringing in the old guard. Yet the former state chief continues to be a loose cannon is a pointer to Bhattacharya’s inability to rein in opposition against Ghosh.
Ghosh’s return to the high table of state BJP appeared to be imminent after his meeting with Union home minister, Amit Shah. But his absence in the state committee reiterates the fact that all is not well with West Bengal unit of BJP.
It is indeed an indication that intervention from the highest quarters of the saffron camp is falling short to settle an intra-party squabble. Organisational weakness of the “party with a difference” surfaces over this incident and sends a wrong message to voters months before the Assembly polls.
The announcement of the new committee comes just before senior BJP leader, J P Nadda’s visit to West Bengal. There seems to be an element of a knee jerk reaction in the announcement which appears to be an eye wash before the senior leadership.
The others in the reconstituted body do not promise an effective top tier of a political outfit on whose direction the rank and file will hit the ground running for the coming election. Some new faces have made it to the new state committee but there are no surprises in the 34-member new team.
Among the new vice-presidents, MLA Agnimitra Paul and Jagannath Chotterjee have both been no great performers as general secretaries. Moreover, Chatterjee is untested in electoral politics.
Former Union minister of state for home, Nisith Pramanik has also been made a vice-president. It seems to be an instance of bestowing honour sans operational control.
Bishnupur MP Soumitra Khan, Sashi Agnihotri from Kolkata and Bapi Goswami from north Bengal are the other vice-presidents. While Khan is a post 2019 election inductee and Goswami a RSS activist from north Bengal, the state saffron camp does not seen to be in possession of a leadership line-up to sweep the elections.
Among the secretaries, Siliguri MLA Shankar Ghosh though a vocal member during Assembly sessions had been attacked by a mob when he went to visit a landslide affected area. This puts a question mark on his popularity as a leader and effectiveness as a campaigner.
Without mincing words, the newly formed BJP state committee seems to be lopsided. It is not the ideal body to plan and execute the removal of more than a decade long Trinamool Congress dispensation.
Inducting Ali Hussain as the head of the minority cell of the party, Bhattacharya has apparently shown his initiative to woo minority voters. But given recent incidents on Bengali Muslim labourers in the BJP ruled states and the strong Trinamool reaction to it, the BJP state chief ‘s effort seem to be cosmetic.
.As for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the TMC seems to have had a headstart over the BJP. Apart from minority populace, a TMC electoral mainstay, the deletion of voters names will cut into the Matua vote bank of BJP as well.
The apprehension has been voiced by none other than former minister Nisith Pramanik and Haringhata BJP MLA Asim Sarkar. Even minister of state for shipping Santanu Thakur, himself a member of Matua community stating the possibility of deletion of a significant number of Matua votes have put the community members on their toes.
The SIR may very much boomerang on the BJP in West Bengal. With months to go before the Assembly elections, storm signals are discernible for the saffron camp in the state. (IPA Service)
