Wave of Discontent Sweeps Through BJP's West Bengal Unit, Targeting Leader Adhikari
New Delhi: After its major electoral debacle, a wave of heavy resentment is brewing within the BJP’s West Bengal unit against the Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari. Party insiders report growing discontent over his leadership style and strategic decisions. A fuming former state unit president, Dilip Ghosh, who lost the polls, hit out saying “conspiracies and back-biting are part of politics. I have not lost. The BJP has lost”. West Bengal state unit chief Sukanta Majumder, who won by a slender margin from Balurghat Lok Sabha seat, reportedly indicated to party workers that he had “little say" over the selection of candidates. Besides the “poor” selection of candidates, what hit the party hard was the consolidation of women and Muslim voters in favour of Mamata Banerjee. The BJP, incidentally, failed to retain its 2019 tally of 18 Lok Sabha seats. It came down by six seats and the party’s voteshare too declined by nearly two per cent -- from 40.6 per cent in 2019 to 38.73 per cent this time.
A senior party leader from West Bengal claimed most of the decisions on candidate selections were taken by Mr Adhikari. A section of state unit leaders also blamed Mr Adhikari for the defeat of former BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh. It was argued that the decision to shift Mr Ghosh from Midnapore Lok Sabha constituency to Burdwan-Durgapur proved to be “costly” for the BJP. Mr Ghosh’s nomination remained uncertain and his candidature from Burdwan-Durgapur was announced only 48 hours before the deadline. In the process, the party shifted Suranderjeet Singh Ahluwalia, who won from Burdwan-Durgapur seat to Asansol Lok Sabha seat to take on TMC heavyweight Shatrughan Sinha. Eventually, the BJP lost both the seats. It was alleged that despite objections by Mr Ghosh and other state unit leaders over the shifting of candidates, the BJP national leaders “ïn cahoots” with a section of senior BJP functionaries who had “migrated’ from the TMC went ahead with the decision.
State unit leaders also fumed over the national leadership’s decision to “promote” the “turncoats” (who came to the BJP from the TMC) over loyal party workers. The state leaders were seething over giving tickets to Arjun Singh and Tapas Roy of the TMC. It was noted that over the last five years Mr Singh has been going back and forth between the TMC and BJP. When the TMC refused to give him a ticket during this election, he promptly joined the BJP and was given a ticket from Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat. He lost by over 64,000 votes to the TMC’s Partha Bhowmick. Former TMC leader Tapas Roy, who was being probed by Central agencies over corruption charges, shifted to the BJP. He was inducted and fielded from Kolkata (Uttar). Mr Roy lost to his TMC rival by a huge margin. Some state unit leaders hold Mr Adhikari and the BJP national leadership responsible for this “mess”.
The consolidation of women and Muslim voters in favour of Ms Banerjee has rattled the BJP in the state. Despite the BJP and the Centre's attempt to play up the alleged “torture and abuse” of women by TMC leaders in Sandeshkhali, a majority of women voters, who constitute 50 per cent of the West Bengal electorate, voted for Ms Banerjee. Also, the BJP's high-pitched Islamophobic campaign failed to pay any dividends in the state. The BJP had hoped to split the 30 per cent of Muslim votes between the TMC, CPI(M) and Congress. Almost 99 per cent of the 30 per cent Muslims voted en masse in favour of the TMC. The shift of the entire Muslim vote to the TMC also resulted in the defeat of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Behrampore constituency. The BJP leaders, however, claimed the party's failure to counter Ms Banerjee’s welfare scheme for women, “Lakshmir Bhandar”, had hit the party hard.
As the West Bengal BJP stares into a bleak future, the party's minority cell president, Charles Nandi, felt the decimation of the CPI(M) and Congress in the Lok Sabha polls would help the BJP in future. “In the next Assembly elections, there is going to be a direct fight between the BJP and TMC. We have emerged as the main Opposition.” The Assembly elections in West Bengal are due to be held in mid-2026.
