After its major electoral debacle, a wave of heavy resentment is brewing within the BJP’s West Bengal unit against the Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari. Party insiders report growing discontent over his leadership style and strategic decisions. A fuming former state unit president, Dilip Ghosh, who lost the polls, hit out saying “conspiracies and back-biting are part of politics.
I have not lost. The BJP has lost”. West Bengal state unit chief Sukanta Majumder, who won by a slender margin from Balurghat Lok Sabha seat, reportedly indicated to party workers that he had “little say" over the selection of candidates.
Besides the “poor” selection of candidates, what hit the party hard was the consolidation of women and Muslim voters in favour of Mamata Banerjee. The BJP, incidentally, failed to retain its 2019 tally of 18 Lok Sabha seats. It came down by six seats and the party’s voteshare too declined by nearly two per cent -- from 40.
6 per cent in 2019 to 38.73 per cent this time. A senior party leader from West Bengal claimed most of the decisions on candidate selections were taken by Mr Adhikari.
A section of state unit leaders also blamed Mr Adhikari for the defeat of former BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh. It was argued that the decision to shift Mr Ghosh from Midnapore Lok Sabha constituency to Burdwan-Durgapur proved to be “costly” for the BJP. Mr Ghosh’s nomination remained uncertain and his candidature from Burdwan-Durgapur was announced only 4.