Ahead of West Bengal Assembly elections, BJP and TMC hit by rebellion

Abhijit Ganguly has embarrassed the saffron party, openly expressing doubt if the party high-command was really keen to pose any significant challenge to the TMC in the state and oust Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party from power.

Kolkata: With the assembly elections in West Bengal just a few months away, both the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in the state were hit by a rebellion recently – by a legislator and a parliamentarian respectively.

Abhijit Ganguly, a BJP member of the Lok Sabha from West Bengal, has embarrassed the saffron party itself with a series of media-interviews, openly expressing doubt if the party high-command was really keen to pose any significant challenge to the TMC in the state and oust Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party from power. He also said that the BJP would not be able to win the elections in West Bengal by deploying leaders from New Delhi and other northern states, ignoring the competent ones in the state itself.

The TMC, on the other hand, is staring at the imminent exit of Humayun Kabir, a member of the state legislative assembly and one of the party’s key leaders among the Muslims. Kabir, who was elected from Bharatpur in Murshidabad, launched a tirade against Apurba Sarkar, the district chief of the TMC and another legislator from neighbouring Kandi, defying the party top brass.

Kabir also vowed to start the construction of a mosque, modelled on the Babri Masjid, on December 6, commemorating the demolition of the ancient one in Ayodhya. The move alarmed the TMC leaders, as it might help the BJP step up its Hindutva campaign in Murshidabad, apart from lending credence to the allegation about Mamata Banerjee’s party and the government appeasing the minority community. He even dared the TMC high command to expel him from the party. His plan to float a new party raised hope for the BJP  

Ganguly had quit his job as a judge of the Calcutta High Court to join the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He had contested and won from Tamluk, largely because the state BJP heavyweight and the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, had thrown in his weight behind him.

But, in several media interviews over the past few days, the judge-turned politician said that he had joined the BJP to do his bit to oust the corrupt TMC government led by Mamata Banerjee, but failed in his mission, due to the lack of interest of the Union Government led by the saffron party. He cited the Centre’s reluctance to resort to Article 355 of the Constitution. He said that it might not be possible to oust the TMC if the Centre did not take over the law and order of the state.   

Ganguly’s several orders as a judge of the High Court against the TMC government in connection with the recruitment scam had earned him a “crusader against corruption” image.  

He, however, gave vent to his frustration with the BJP’s high command just a few weeks after the saffron party appointed the Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav and former Tripura chief minister, Biplab Deb, currently a Lok Sabha member, as observers for the assembly elections in West Bengal. Amit Malviya, who heads the BJP’s National Information and Technology department, and Sunil Bansal, the party’s national general secretary, have already been overseeing the preparations for the 2026 polls.

Ganguly recently said that the BJP leaders sent by the party high command in New Delhi could not connect with the sentiments of the people of West Bengal and could not guide the party to electoral victory in the state. A source within the BJP in West Bengal said that the comments by the former judge had in fact reflected the internal tension between veterans and new entrants, which had escalated after Adhikari had switched over to the party from the TMC in 2020.

Adhikari, a frontrunner for the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in West Bengal, has not been happy over certain decisions of the party over the past few months, particularly after the appointment of Samik Bhattacharya, a member of the Rajya Sabha, as the state unit chief, the source told DH.

Kabir, on the other hand, has for long been an irritant for the TMC. His comments against his party colleagues prompted the TMC top brass to issue notices. His vow to float a new party next month can put the TMC in a tight spot.