‘Underhand influence being used by Dilip Ghosh and Amitava Chakraborty.’
New Delhi: The Bengal unit of the BJP is facing a major turmoil with many leaders expressing their displeasure over the working of the state committee and the “underhand influence” being used by former president of the Bengal BJP Dilip Ghosh and Bengal BJP’s organisational secretary Amitava Chakraborty.
In the last two weeks at least ten BJP MLAs and an MP and Union Minister have quit the official BJP WhatsApp group citing differences with the state committee. Some of the MLAs who have quit the BJP’s official WhatsApp group includes MLAs like Ashok Kirtaniya, Asim Sarkar, Subrata Thakur, Hiran Chatterjee, Ambika Roy, Mukut Mani Adhikari, Nirmal Dhara, Amarnath Sakha, amongst others. While Bongaon MP and Union Minister Shantanu Thakur also quit the official WhatsApp group of the BJP earlier this week citing differences with the state unit of the BJP in Bengal.
Sources in the BJP have said that soon after the State committee was announced by the present president of the Bengal BJP Sukanta Mazumdar last month differences began to surface amongst many leaders of the state unit with many claiming that the former state president Dilip Ghosh was exerting his “influence” over the party to keep the state unit under his control.
Many senior leaders of the BJP in Bengal have also openly criticised Dilip Ghosh and his “coterie”. Leaders like Roopa Ganguly earlier had openly slammed the state unit of the BJP in Bengal for trying to run the party in a “dictatorial” fashion. Sources also say that other leaders like Saumitra Khan, Hiran Chatterjee, Locket Chatterjee, Sayantan Basu have also expressed their concerns as to how the state committee is being run and controlled by “two individuals”.
Hiran Chatterjee who is an MLA from the Kharagpur Sadar assembly seat which falls under the Lok Sabha constituency of Dilip Ghosh has claimed that he is being continuously ignored by the BJP leaders from the State and therefore he had decided to quit all BJP WhatsApp groups. Speaking to the media Hiran has said that he was not being given an audience with the recent district president of the BJP announced for Kharagpur organisational district of the BJP and that the district and the state BJP has decided to not attend any meetings and programmes that is being organised by Hiran in his assembly constituency. He has also hinted that such things were happening at the behest of Dilip Ghosh who is also the MP from Kharagpur.
Saumitra Khan BJP MP from Bishnupur Lok Sabha constituency in Bengal had also in many occasions criticised the state leadership. He had earlier also resigned from the post of Yuva Morcha president of the BJP citing his differences with Dilip Ghosh. Khan was later inducted into the new state committee as the vice president of BJP Bengal.
Locket Chatterjee has almost made herself unavailable for the state unit of the BJP, once again due to her differences with Dilip Ghosh. Even former Union Minister and BJP MP from Asansol Babul Supriyo had quit the BJP after he was rebuked by the then BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, following which the central leadership had removed Ghosh as the state president of the BJP of Bengal and installed Sukanta Mazumdar in his place.
Sources in the BJP has also confirmed to The Sunday Guardian that several of the other MPs who have quit the BJP’s Whatsapp groups have presented their concerns to the top central leadership of the BJP about how two individuals are trying to control the state unit of the BJP and exert their influence even in select district leaders.
MLAs and MPs have also complained to the central leadership of the BJP about how they were not taken into confidence before appointing the district committees which was declared by the state BJP on 25 December last year.