A struggling West Bengal BJP!

The restaurant was running well, and the crowds were steady. Another restaurant opened in the opposite. New utensils, cleaner environments, the crowds diverted there. The boss of the new restaurant now had become greedy. He changed the menu and offered fare that tasted different disliked by the locals. The crowds were back to the first restaurant. The situation sums up the West Bengal political scenario.

BJP, West Bengal, has been struggling ever since their assumed victory in the Assembly elections, their humiliating defeat. It followed with a reverse defection of those who had joined the BJP from the Trinamool Congress. They returned to their old organisation, the party re-admitting the defectors, merely to teach the BJP a lesson. As a result, the BJP became a mute spectator, forsaking their supporters and rural party leaders, who had to face the brunt of the victorious Trinamool party.

If arrogance caused the BJP dearly, the party HQ tried to assuage the disgruntled State members by replacing the State party chief. However, he is neither popular nor strong and has a soft approach towards his party’s ailments. The Delhi BJP foisted Suvendu Adhikari, the MLA who had won against Mamata, as the defacto all-in-all of their Bengal unit. He is the ‘Leader of the Opposition,’ but a defector from the Trinamool Congress. The former State chief, the untamable Dilip Ghosh, has refused to move to the sidelines, rearing his head again and giving impromptu statements to the press, often embarrassing their party. But his rough and tough style seems better gelled with the youths.

The Bengal BJP seems now to be in a wilderness. Many old guards are shunned. Many old members of the party are peeved at their exclusion from the party’s activities. They also resent the importance of defectors like Suvendu, whose political loyalties are amply proven by his defection from Trinamool to BJP. Many of his erstwhile colleagues have returned, biting a humble pie, at the feet of Mamata Banerjee.

The BJP, in a strange way, the BJP State leadership now has excluded several known faces from their new committees and cells. There is strong resentment from the Matua community. Many of their leaders with the BJP are now ready to quit the party. Most dissenters ignore the State leadership and are prepared to discuss only with their party high command.

Mamata Banerjee is a time-tested leader, braving many pitfalls in her political career and successfully overcoming all of them. None in the present State BJP’s dispensation matches her political foresight and insight, not even Suvendu. But, if Didi is acceptable to all in her party as the undisputed leader, there is not a single face in Bengal’s BJP as an unquestionable leader.

There seems little in BJP’s hat to dislodge Didi and her government. Therefore, there could be a possibility for a political rapprochement of some sort, not visible to the general public.

The first restaurant is crowded, and the business is thriving. The second one, piling up huge losses, can neither close nor run!

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix

Pic: Sukanta Majumdar, WB BJP President