A string of resignations by party functionaries rattled the BJP’s Bengal unit on Sunday even as the state leadership went about preparing for Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Bengal between May 4 and 6.
Riddhi Bandyopadhyay, a singer who had joined the BJP in the latter half of 2020, wrote to the party’s national chief J.P. Nadda and state chief Sukanta Majumdar on Sunday asking them to “delist” her name from the state committee and “announce the same in the appropriate forum”.
The singer-turned-politician alleged that her name had been included in the committee without her consent and she was not interested in being in the party.
“Of course I was aligned to the BJP during the period of 2020 and 2021 with the simple hope to serve the aspirations of common people of Bengal. But in the end I have become disillusioned and I have disassociated from your party,” she wrote.
Sources in the party claimed that Bandyopadhyay snapped ties with the BJP because Jay Prakash Majumdar, a former BJP vice-president, recently defected to Trinamul.
The letter of Bandyopadhyay, who is otherwise a political lightweight, triggered a fresh round of debate in the BJP.
“The problem is that our leaders have been giving posts to people who did nothing for the party. Now, these people are deserting us... It’s a shame on the leaders (who gave them the posts),” said a source.
Resignations rang loud in Barasat as well. Fifteen district committee members sent a mass resignation letter to Majumdar, heaping allegations of malpractices against the newly appointed district president Tapas Mitra.
Those who resigned included state committee member Asish Majumdar, former district president Pratip Chatterjee and eight mandal chiefs. A mandal is the smallest organisational unit in the BJP.
According to the letter, Mitra has been running the district committee autocratically and appointing people close to him in several posts. They alleged that Mitra distributed tickets in the civic polls for money and had links with Trinamul.
Mitra refuted these allegations. Sukanta Majumdar, when contacted, said he has not received the resignations yet. “The district president will not be removed… I will have to see who has sent resignations and to whom,” he said.
Arjun on meeting
BJP's Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh, who met the Union textile minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday night to resolve his grievances over the Jute Commissioner of India’s decision to cap the price of raw jute at Rs 6,500, on Sunday termed the meeting as good but added that he wanted concrete results and not lollipops.
“The meeting was good. For the first time I was able to convince the minister about the problems. He has fixed my meeting with the textile secretary on Monday,” Singh said.
He then added: “I want concrete deliverables. I won’t be pacified with lollipops. If something is not done on the ground, I'll hit the streets in a big manner.”
Singh also said that he would discuss the jute crisis to Union home minister Amit Shah when he visits Calcutta between May 4 and 6.