KOLKATA: The simmering factional feud between BJP old-timers and Trinamool Congress turncoats came out in the open with fisticuffs among their supporters and ransacking of party offices in Kolkata’s adjoining two districts on Monday.
The episodes comes barely two days after the BJP high command elevated Mukul Roy, a one-time aide of Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, as national vice-president and Anupam Hazra, also a former Trinamool member, as national secretary. Hazra, while on his way to attend a party meeting in Baruipur, South 24-Parganas, was surrounded by a section of irked party workers. The two sides clashed soon after Hazra left. Eleven persons, including two women, were injured, said the police.
At Basirhat in North 24-Parganas, BJP workers stormed into the party office where local BJP leaders, who defected from TMC, were holding a session and went on a rampage.
A section of BJP leaders fear that if more TMC turncoats are given importance, the rift will become deeper. ‘’If those who have been serving the party since past two decades are sidelined and TMC leaders, who joined our party barely two or three years ago, are placed in the hierarchy, it will trigger resentment among the party’s loyal workers,’’ said a senior BJP leader. Incidentally, former national general secretary Rahul Sinha had said the demotion was a ‘’reward’’ for serving the party for 40 years.
BJP sources said Roy’s elevation was done with an eyeing on the 2021 general elections. “We are expecting exodus from the TMC before the next year’s election. There are a significant number of Roy’s followers in the ruling party as once he was the second-in command there,” said a BJP leader.