KOLKATA: The alleged involvement of West Bengal BJP Mahila Morcha general secretary Juhee Chowdhury in Jalpaiguri child trafficking racket and her absconding state since then has drawn a deep cleavage within the ranks of West Bengal unit of BJP.
While Mahila Morcha president and Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly is strongly behind the tainted leader, other top-notch leaders such as state president Dileep Ghosh and former president Rahul Sinha are cautious over lending wholehearted support to Juhee Chowdhury, even though all have alleged that BJP leaders are being deliberately targeted by the Trinamool Congress government as a result of vendetta politics.
According to sources, Roopa Ganguly has expressed her ire over why the party leaders were not lending support to Chowdhury in her time of crisis. However, many BJP leaders doubt Juhee's involvement largely because she is absconding. "If she is innocent, why is she not appearing to prove her innocence," they question.
While Roopa has said that state president Dileep Ghosh had signed Juhee's appointment as the Morcha general secretary, Ghosh has replied stating that he was completely unaware of Juhee's past.
Earlier, Bengal BJP vice-president and spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar was arrested for allegedly siphoning off Rs 7 lakh from a person promising him a job of a primary school teacher and another leader from Bidhannagar, Dilip Ghosh was arrested for alleged involvement in Bhaduria child trafficking racket in December last year
Hence, to put an end to the taint being splashed on the party by individuals, the state unit on orders of the central command is planning to form a screening committee to thoroughly verify the background of people before inducting them into the party.
"BJP ranks are swelling in Bengal every day. Many rotten fish also come in the lot. Hence, we have been directed by our central leadership to induct only those who have a clean background. For this, we will form a screening committee that will look into the past of the potential party worker before inducting him or her into the party," a top BJP leader told New Indian Express.
Incidentally, arrested leaders Jay Prakash Majumdar and Dilip Ghosh had quit Congress and CPM respectively to join BJP.