Reshuffle on Cards in Bengal BJP to Quell Dissidence

KOLKATA: The West Bengal BJP will soon  witness a reshuffle after several of its leaders openly called for a change of guard   during the meeting with the party’s newly appointed observer Kailash Vijaybargiya’s here on Saturday.

A majority of them demanded that state BJP chief Rahul Sinha should be ousted since his tenure would get over next month. Moreover, they pointed out that he lacked the necessary leadership skills as was evidenced by the party’s unimpressive showing in April’s civic elections.

Vijaibargiya, who is on a two-day visit to the city, had separate meetings with a cross-section of the BJP leaders to get a feedback about the functioning of the party, which will contest the Assembly polls next year.

A former minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA-I government, Satyabata Mukherjee, told Vijaibargiya that the party would meet its Waterloo if it contested the Assembly polls under Sinha. He and his followers from Nadia district, where the saffron party has a strong presence, went to the extent of telling Vijaibargiya that if Sinha were not ousted by next month, they would think of quitting the party and forming a new organisation to take on the ruling TMC.

A majority of BJP leaders also pointed out that the party had failed to win even a single municipality out of the total 93 where polls were held and its vote share of 17 per cent drastically came down to eight per cent. Many BJP councillors, who got elected, also defected to the TMC and for that they squarely blamed Sinha since he was the one who nominated them. The BJP’s powerful district president in Birbhum, Doodh Kumar Mondal also resigned in protest against Sinha’s choice of candidates. 

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