Factional feud plagues Bengal BJP after bypoll defeat

A factional feud has started to plague the Bengal BJP, following its debacle in the recent Assembly by-elections. Not only are party workers openly demonstrating against a section of state leaders in some districts but the blame game also has gone public as rival party factions came to blows on the streets.

The latest example of the Bengal BJP infighting happened Wednesday, when Shankar Chakraborty, former party district president in North Dinajpur, published a Facebook post accusing BJP MP and Union Minister Debasreee Chowdhury of blaming him for the party’s by-election defeat in the Kaliaganj Assembly seat. Kaliaganj is in North Dinajpur district.

Chakraborty, in the Facebook post that was later deleted, alleged that the minister called him and told him that the BJP lost Kaliaganj because he indulged in paid news.

“At last, the reason for our defeat in Kaliaganj has been found: It’s me," said Chakraborty, in the post. "The credit goes to Central (Union) Minister Debasreee Chowdhury. She called me up and said it was neither because of NRC nor the issue of rail connectivity here but our party lost (in Kaliaganj) because local newspaper reporters work at my behest.”

Ever since the by-election results were declared last week, several incidents of feuding within the BJP have come to light. Clashes erupted between two rival factions of the party last week in Khardaha town in North 24 Paraganas District and several party workers were injured.

Another incident took place in the Uttarpara area of Hooghly district, where BJP workers put up posters against the local leadership and accused district-level leader Pranab Chakraborty of colluding with the Congress. Chakraborty, however, claimed that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was behind the incident.

Recently, disgruntled BJP workers vandalised the district head office in West Medinipur. The Bengal BJP leadership is struggling to conduct local oganisational elections because of the intensity of the factional feuds in several districts.

This development comes at a time when the saffron party remains stunned by a humiliating defeat to the TMC in the Assembly by-elections. The TMC won all three Assembly seats that went to the polls and the BJP drew a blank.