The "burden" of victory in the Bengal Assembly polls hasn't been limited to the BJP alone, but also to several RSS frontal organisations such as the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS).

Thousands, mainly those associated with the Trinamool Congress, became self-proclaimed activists of the BJP's student outfit and trade union after the May 4 Assembly election results.

While a large number of Trinamool student leaders attempted to project themselves as ABVP activists, several Trinamool workers who were not allowed direct entry into the BJP started claiming to be BMS members in a bid to take control of small unions such as those of autorickshaw and battery-driven rickshaw operators.

The state leadership of the ABVP said it had so far lodged 17 police complaints against new groups operating in the outfit's name and was continuing close surveillance across the state to identify such organisations.

On Thursday, the state unit of the students’ wing issued a press release regarding a fake ABVP letterhead that had allegedly been used to submit a memorandum to governor R.N. Ravi against certain activities of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) and some proposals related to Burdwan University.

“Since the May 4 election results, many student unions belonging to the TMCP have changed their social media identities and started using the ABVP name. Several social media groups that were earlier named TMCP have been using our name to mislead students. We have already registered 17 police complaints and are continuing awareness campaigns on social media to help people identify such fake outfits,” ABVP state secretary Neelkantha Bhattacharjee said.

“Those who are using our name to mislead students will not be able to continue this practice for long, as we have units in all districts and educational institutions. We are urging students who wish to join the ABVP to contact our organisational leaders directly,” he added.

Sources said the issue was first noticed on May 4, when a WhatsApp group of the TMCP with around 370 members suddenly changed its identity to the ABVP. Once it was reported, the outfit lodged a complaint with the police. Since then, several TMCP units from different colleges and medical colleges have changed their identities and started claiming to be those of the ABVP.

On May 5, a day after the election results in which the BJP swept the Bengal elections, a group of self-proclaimed ABVP activists stormed the Vidyasagar University campus, vandalised a part of the premises and allegedly forced the vice-chancellor to chant slogans. The ABVP immediately clarified that those involved in the incident had no connection with it.

After the election results, thousands of people known to be Trinamool workers smeared themselves with saffron gulal, took up BJP flags and started chanting “Jai Shri Ram”. The BJP described such people as “post-poll BJP” workers — those who switched allegiance following the defeat of Mamata Banerjee’s party.

BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya had immediately announced that no “post-poll BJP” worker would be accepted. He also said the BJP has no trade union or students’ wing. However, BJP sources claimed that those who failed to secure direct entry into the BJP had started taking shelter in Sangh-affiliated frontal organisations such as ABVP or BMS to change their political identity and cover up their alleged wrongdoings.

The BMS leadership also witnessed a sudden surge of self-proclaimed workers who had previously been associated with other trade unions or had no connection with any labour organisation.

A senior BMS leader said they had locally circulated messages identifying those who had recently started using the BMS name.

“BMS ideology does not align with those who were involved in corruption and atrocities in the name of trade unionism. We will ensure a corruption-free trade union model in this state, which suffered from such practices in the past 50 years,” said Debasis Bhattacharya, BMS state general secretary.