Kolkata: The race for the next President for West Bengal’s BJP chapter is underway and Dilip Ghosh is confident of retaining his profile.
However, BJP leaders Babul Supriyo, Swapan Dasgupta and Chandra Kumar Bose did not attend the meeting. Recently, BJP Asansol MP Babul Supriyo has shown his disdain towards Ghosh’s comments made in Ranaghat on Sunday stating that the BJP state governments in UP and Assam shot protestors like dogs in regard to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Swapan Dasgupta had retweeted Supriyo’s tweet going against Ghosh’s views. Supriyo maintained that Ghosh’s views were made in his individual capacity and were not the views of the party. Chandra Kumar Bose too tweeted against the CAA twice saying that all communities should be included in the CAA, including the minority community. He had recently tweeted that he does not support divisive politics.
The meeting to decide who is in line was held at the National Library on Thursday. Ghosh, while addressing his party workers said, "Our mission is to form the Government in West Bengal in 2021.
We have to take everyone along with us. ”His comments can be seen as a hint at Supriyo, Dasgupta and Bose who have dissenting views, indicates that things are not rosy within the BJP’s State party ranks. As BJP is inching its way to the grassroots in the State to gain voter’s confidence, the saffron party is confident of giving a tough fight to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) which is in its second term.
BJP won 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which was a steep rise from just 2 seats in the previous general elections. While factionalism is evident within the TMC, the recent rifts within the saffron party’s senior leaders in West Bengal is a matter of concern for the party. TMC is also watching every move of the saffron party even as they are trying everything they can to hold onto their turf.
