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The successive poll drubbings in West Bengal have forced the fissures within the state BJP unit into the open, with senior leader Suvendu Adhikari, who has been facing the brunt of the heat, on Wednesday questioning the party’s avowed motto of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’.
Speaking at the two-day BJP state executive committee meeting, the first after the Lok Sabha poll results, Adhikari also underlined that he was the Leader of the Opposition and had little role in the party organisation in the state.
“Hindu bachabo, songbidhan bachabo. Amio bolechi rashtrabadi Muslim, apnara bolechen ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’. Aar bolbo na. Bolbo ‘Joh humare saath, hum unka saath. ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ bandh karo (We will save the Hindus and save the Constitution. I have spoken about nationalist Muslims and you all said ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’. But I shall say it no more. Rather we shall now say, ‘We are with those who are with us’. Let’s put an end to ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’,” Adhikari said, adding that the BJP should also shut down its Minority Morcha.
With the statement by Adhikari appearing to contradict a policy laid down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, as evidence of its “secular” approach, the state BJP leaders jumped in for damage control, calling the statement Adhikari’s personal opinion.
Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, seen as one of Adhikari’s detractors, told reporters: “In the working committee meeting, party leaders are free to give their recommendations. It is up to the state party leadership to decide any additions, corrections or deletions. Suvendu Adhikari spoke his mind as a delegate.”
On Adhikari’s statement that the BJP Minority Morcha should be dissolved, Majumdar said there was no question of the same and that the wing was a part of the party structure across the country. “The BJP believes in nationalist Muslim personalities such as Kazi Nazrul Islam, A P J Abdul Kalam and Wajid Ali Shah… The BJP follows such principles,” the state party chief added.
Adhikari later claimed he had been quoted out of context. In a post on X, he said: “I am clear that those who are Nationalists, stand for this Nation and Bengal, we should be with them. Those who don’t stand with us, work against the interest of Nation and Bengal, we need to expose them. Also, like Mamata Banerjee, we shouldn’t divide people (into) majority and minority, and see them as Indians. I embody in letter and spirit the Prime Minister’s call for Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas.”
However, he wasn’t wrong in what he said, Adhikari, an MLA from Nandigram, added. “Hindus voted for the BJP and Muslims did not vote for us. In the 2021 state Assembly polls, 91 out of 100 Muslims voted for the TMC. In the Lok Sabha polls, 95 out of 100 Muslims voted for Mamata Banerjee’s party. Therefore, I said this as a grassroot leader and from a political angle. This has nothing to do with the development work of PM Modi.”
On Tuesday, Adhikari had said that “more than 50 lakh Hindus” were not allowed to vote in the Lok Sabha polls in Bengal, and that over two lakh could not do so in the Assembly bypolls on July 10. All the four seats which went to by-elections were won by the Trinamool Congress.
On the sidelines of the BJP meeting, party workers staged protests demanding action against certain state leaders whom they held responsible for the poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls. Others, such as BJP MP Saumitra Khan, made calls seeking an organisational overhaul.
“No one wants to see a failed leader for a very long time. New leaders must be given the opportunity to take the party ahead… If the state leadership cannot move in the right direction, the party will fail again,” Khan said.
BJP leader Arun Singh said party leaders needed to “stand by the people… instead of holding meetings behind closed doors”. “To defeat Mamata Banerjee, who has the support of the police and goons, one has to adopt a different approach,” Singh said.
Adhikari’s remarks, seemingly blaming the BJP’s performance on the Muslim vote, follow jibes at him by several BJP leaders over the fall in the party’s Lok Sabha seat tally from 18 in 2019 to 12 this time. Sources talked of Adhikari himself deciding as many as 30 candidates, with the blame game a reflection of the resentment borne by many within the state BJP against the former Mamata Banerjee aide who catapulted to top ranks in the BJP after chasing sides.
Adhikari took on these claims in his speech at the state executive committee meeting, saying: “I did not oversee the organisation. I am the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and there has been no instance where I have made any remark that goes against the party. Secondly, I was in no way responsible for the organisational aspects of the state unit.” Adhikari is one of the 30 members in the state executive committee.
Majumdar, who also addressed the meeting, said: “It is true that our tally of Lok Sabha seats dropped. We need to find out what did not work. However, these results cannot be the end of the road for the BJP in West Bengal.”
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 18 seats in West Bengal and secured 40.7% of the votes, in its best ever performance in the state. The TMC won 22 seats and got 43.3% of the vote share.
However, in the recent Lok Sabha polls, the BJP saw its tally fall to 12, along with a marginal decrease in its vote share (38.73%). The TMC increased its tally to 29 and got 45.76% of the votes.
The Trinamool Congress said Adhikari’s statements showed the BJP’s desperate attempts to cover up its failures. “Suvendu Adhikari is venting his frustrations after the electoral defeats in Bengal. His statement is a direct attack on the motto and principles of PM Modi. BJP leaders are saying this to hide the party’s failures in Bengal,” TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said.
