Bengal BJP grapples with infighting, corruption charges as LS polls close in

The BJP in Bengal is staring at a possible split as a full-blown revolt has erupted in the party with a section within it accusing the state leadership of “misusing” funds and “sidelining” committed functionaries.

The development has severely wrecked the BJP’s electoral prospects in Bengal and also taken some winds out of the party’s anti-corruption campaign in the state.

‘Vehicle scam’ comes to the fore

BJP leader Amit Shah has set a target of winning 35 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in the General Elections due early next year.

To achieve the target, the party has been betting big on a series of corruption charges that multiple central agencies are investigating against many top leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress.

A demand for purging the party of corrupt leaders has started gaining traction among the grassroots workers at a time when its state leadership is trying to mount protests against corruption in Mamata Banerjee’s TMC government.

The state leadership is facing charges of taking “cut money” while selling old vehicles and syphoning funds meant for donations to puja committees.

Corruption charges

To compete with the TMC in dole politics, the BJP for the first time announced that it would provide financial aid of up to ₹1 lakh to puja committees that are not financially sound.

As announced, it claimed to have extended financial support to more than 400 puja committees who are deprived of the state's largesse.

The state government this year increased its grant to the puja committees to ₹70,000 from ₹60,000. Over 40,000 puja committees across the state were the beneficiaries of the government’s grant.

A section of BJP workers is now insinuating that the party state leaders have misappropriated the puja fund.

The allegations spilled out onto the open when angry party workers of Magrahat in South 24 Parganas district staged protests on Tuesday accusing the district president Utpal Naskar of misusing the puja fund. They protested in front of the former state BJP president Dilip Ghosh.

‘Chor-mukt BJP’ call

Naskar, however, said that there were some misunderstandings leading to the protests.

The protesters are said to be members of BJP Bachao Mancha, a platform floated by disgruntled members of the state unit to what they say "save the party."

The outfit has been for long alerting the BJP central leadership of corruption in the organisation.

“The honesty and chastity of state party leaders are questionable. Their activities should be monitored by a reliable central observer. Various funds are provided here from the central party, but these funds are misused (sic),” read a recent email sent by a convenor of the mancha to BJP national president J P Nadda. The Federal has read the mail.

It alleged that the state leadership took a “huge commission or cut money” for selling 42 Bolero cars and many old cars used by the state BJP office. The cars were sold at much lower than the market price, Nadda was told.

There was no need to dispose of the vehicles as they were in good condition, the email further read.

Almost endorsing the mancha’s corruption allegations against the state leadership, BJP's national general secretary Anupam Hazra gave a call at a party programme for a “chor-mukt BJP.”

“One group in the party is enriching their pockets, while the others are bearing the brunt of attacks (from TMC). This cannot go on,” he said.

The organisation in another e-mail correspondence to Nadda alleged that no help in cash or kind reached to party workers who were rendered homeless becoming victims of the post-poll violence (after 2021 assembly elections) though the central leadership had sent help to the state unit.

A large number of party workers and leaders have been sidelined and deprived of any organisational portfolios by a handful of leaders who are controlling the party in Bengal, Hazra alleged.

‘Key leaders sidelined, state leaders weakening party’

Meanwhile, the state BJP president Sukanta Mazumdar hinted that action would be initiated against Hazra.

Without naming Hazra, he said if a party national general secretary or a block or a booth president – whoever he may be – says or does something that strengthens the TMC and weakens the BJP, then “we have to assume dal mein kuch kala hein (there is definitely something wrong).”

It is learnt that the state unit had lodged a complaint against Hazra with the central leadership.

On Monday Hazra was seen attending a protest programme of the TMC at Santiniketan.

It is the state leadership who are weakening the party by sidelining active workers and leaders and those who hold mirrors to them (state leaders), said Samsur Rahaman, a leader of the mancha and a former vice president of the BJP’s state minority morcha.

“The party’s performance was dismal in all the organisational districts barring Arambagh and East Midnapore in the 2023 panchayat elections. Presidents of these two district units were changed after the panchayat polls as a ‘reward’ for their hard work,” Rahaman added.

Hundreds of mancha members held a demonstration in front of the party's state headquarters in Kolkata on October 12, accusing the top leadership of sidelining those who played a crucial role in ensuring the party’s victory in 18 Lok Sabha seats from Bengal in 2019.

Similar protests erupted in other parts of the state as well.

The mancha said it will relaunch its agitations after Kali puja/Diwali.

“We are planning to launch a massive state-wide agitation to cleanse the party of bad elements after the festive season is over. We will first gherao the state BJP offices at Salt Lake (new office) and 6, Murlidhar Lane (old office) and RSS state headquarters at Keshab Bhavan in Manicktala,” he said.

Mancha mulls to field own candidates for LS polls

The RSS is the ideological and also to large extent organisational fountainhead of the BJP.

If the party central leadership, most of whom are drawn from the RSS, does not overhaul the BJP organisation in the state, then the mancha might consider fielding its own candidates against the party nominees in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, Rahaman told The Federal.

The mancha is in touch with many old-timers, who are now sidelined in the party, including two former state presidents Tathagata Roy and Asim Kumar Ghosh, he added.

Roy is also very vocal in the social media against the state of affairs in Bengal BJP.