TUSSLE WITHIN

BJP is sensing a huge opportunity in Bengal. Recently, party chief JP Nadda flagged off five “parivartan” yatras in the state with holding back-to-back meetings. On Sunday, Prime Minister addressed a massive rally at Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata. In fact, BJP is leaving no stone unturned – from laying claim to the legacy of Netaji Subhas Bose to promising new infrastructure projects and new jobs – to ensure victory in Bengal.

And most tellingly, the party has seen a steady stream of TMC leaders join its ranks in the last few months. On the one hand, this underlines that BJP has the tailwinds and has potentially solved its old problem of lacking charismatic Bengali faces – especially after former

TMC ministers Suvendu Adhikari, Rajib Banerjee and ex-Rajya Sabha member Mithun Chakraborty switched sides. On the other hand, there is growing disquiet within the party over the new inductees, with the old guard feeling marginalised. This recently forced BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya to announce that the party was halting “mass joinings” of leaders from TMC. Besides, there is a perception that many of the TMC defectors were anyway facing anti-incumbency in their respective constituencies and they’re denied tickets for the forthcoming election from their old party. Some apprehensions inducting TMC members accused of corruption and extortion – the charges BJP has been levelling against the Mamata Banerjee government – could prove costly to the image of BJP. Finally, there is resentment among grassroots BJP cadre now having to work with their former political rivals. In fact, there have been several clashes between the BJP old-timers and new entrants. But even as BJP now becomes more circumspect about new inductees, Mamata will keep raising headwinds for its project by emphasising that the turncoats have entered “BJP washing machine”.

.... KHOKAN DAS, KOLKATA via email