NEW DELHI: Aiming to stem the exodus of party leaders from West Bengal, the BJP on Monday moved state unit chief Dilip Ghosh to its central team as vice president. He was replaced by Sukanta Majumdar to lead the party in Bengal. The decision came after former Union minister Babul Supriyo’s move to join the Trinamool Congress left the BJP embarrassed.
The BJP’s poll campaign in Bengal was hit by infighting amid the power tussle between party leaders and ‘turncoats’. The dissidence didn’t subside even after the state polls and a host of leaders, including MLAs, have joined the TMC.
The BJP also appointed former Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya as party vice-president. With the induction of Ghosh and Maurya, the BJP will now have 13 vice-presidents. Maurya has previously been part of the party’s Scheduled Caste cell. She was also a member of the National Commission of Women. Maurya’s induction in the central team is seen to be the BJP’s bid to shore up the party prospects among the SC constituency in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
The move to shift Ghosh is also seen as an attempt to end confusion among the ranks over the power centres in the BJP’s state unit. The leadership is backing Suvendu Adhikari, who will now be helming the affairs of the saffron outfit, while Majumdar, who is the Lok Sabha MP from Balurghat constituency, will be tasked to build the cadre.