News Mania Desk/ Agnibeena Ghosh/18th June 2024
Senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh is emerging as the frontrunner for the position of West Bengal BJP chief. He is closely followed by Suvendu Adhikari, who currently serves as the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly. This shift comes after Dr. Sukanta Majumder, the present state chief, was promoted to the Union council of ministers. Dr. Majumder continues to manage West Bengal BJP affairs in his role as the working president of the state unit. Amid escalating tensions among state leaders, the West Bengal BJP is set to hold a critical meeting on Monday to analyze the reasons behind its poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Adhikari recently faced criticism for the BJP’s electoral results in the state and chose to skip a core committee meeting in Kolkata on Saturday. Instead, he traveled to Cooch Behar, asserting that it was more important to support the victims of post-poll violence than to attend meetings. The BJP claims that its members in the state have been targeted by Trinamul Congress workers, particularly in the Cooch Behar area, with Mr. Adhikari stating that “nearly 270 BJP workers have taken shelter in our party offices.” However, he is expected to participate in Monday’s meeting to review the party’s performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls.
Party insiders have pinpointed a “weak” organizational structure as a key reason for the BJP’s recent electoral setbacks in West Bengal. Sources indicated that the BJP struggled to establish a presence in many polling booths across the state, failing to deploy polling agents and appoint booth presidents in 40 percent of the nearly 80,000 polling booths.
As the contest for the West Bengal BJP president intensifies, a growing faction within the party supports Mr. Ghosh’s return to the top position. Mr. Ghosh was instrumental in significantly boosting the BJP’s presence in West Bengal during his tenure as state party president. Under his leadership, the BJP’s vote share rose from 10 percent to 39 percent, and the party’s legislative representation increased from three to 77 MLAs in the 2021 Assembly elections. In the 2019 general election, with Mr. Ghosh at the helm, the BJP secured 18 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. Supporters of Mr. Ghosh argue that the party’s “structural coherence and electoral strategy” have weakened since his departure.
Aside from Mr. Adhikari, another potential candidate is Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato, who narrowly won the Purulia Lok Sabha seat. However, many party leaders believe he might not be effective as the state unit president. With Assembly elections scheduled for 2026, the BJP’s Minority Morcha in the state is gearing up to engage more effectively with the Muslim community, which makes up nearly 30 percent of the state’s population. Charles Nandi, the state Minority Morcha chief, emphasized the need to bridge the “communication gap” between the BJP and the Muslim community. Addressing concerns about Islamophobic rhetoric from top BJP leaders during the election campaign, Mr. Nandi insisted that the BJP is “not against the minority community.” He highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan “Sabka saath, sabka vikas” (Together with all, development for all) and mentioned plans to intensify the “Modi-mitra” (Friends of Modi) campaign, which the Morcha had initiated before the general election. Despite current trends showing that over 90 percent of Muslim voters in West Bengal lean towards the Trinamul Congress, Mr. Nandi is now focusing on engaging with the intelligentsia within the Muslim community.
