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Journalism of Courage
At a time when the BJP is seeing the influx of bigwigs like former CMs, MLAs and MPs from other parties into its fold in other states, the party is seeing leaders deserting it in West Bengal.
Over the last one week, the BJP has lost an MP and an MLA to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) while Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs John Barla, who has not yet officially quit the party, has publicly expressed his displeasure at being overlooked for the Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat.
The defections of BJP leaders to the TMC are also a boost to the ruling party, especially after it was cornered recently over the Sandeshkhali issue. Many of these leaders left around the time of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state, where he inaugurated a slew of development projects and also interacted with the members of the BJP Mahila Morcha as well as the victims of Sandeshkhali.
The latest leader to announce his dissociation from the BJP was Jhargram MP Kunar Hembram, who on Saturday said he was stepping away from politics to focus on social work. However, sources said the engineer-turned-politician took the decision after learning that he was unlikely to be renominated from the tribal-dominated seat in Jangalmahal area, a former Maoist hotbed.
Hembram, a first-time MP, won the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by around 10,000 votes, defeating nearest rival Birabha Saren of the TMC. In February 2021, he was gheraoed in his constituency by women, who demanded piped water connection, a promise made by the BJP in the run-up to the polls.
Hembram’s victory was seen as the BJP’s breach of an area which the TMC had transformed into its bastion since 2012, riding mostly on the welfare measures of the Mamata government for Maoists and victims of violence in the Left-era.
However, in the 2021 Assembly elections, the TMC had won all the seven Assembly constituencies falling under it.
On Friday, the BJP MLA from Ranaghat Dakshin, Mukut Mani Adhikari, joined the TMC, in a blow for the BJP that has been wooing the Matua community. Since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the community has rallied behind the BJP, based on its promise of implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The TMC has also kept its focus on the community, which is estimated to number around 30 million and has an estimated 15 million voters in the state.
In the 2021 Assembly polls, Adhikari had garnered almost 50% of the votes and defeated his nearest rival, Barnali Deb Roy, by 18,000 votes in the SC-reserved seat. Ranaghat Dakshin had elected a CPI(M) legislator in 2016 and a TMC legislator in 2011.
The TMC has claimed that the desertion of leaders from the BJP marks the beginning of the end for it. “The leaders have started leaving a sinking ship. The BJP has no future in Bengal and hence leaders are no longer interested in remaining with it. This is just the beginning,” said party spokesperson Arup Chakraborty.
Barla’s public sulking, on the other hand, reflects the infighting within the Bengal BJP. His outburst, after the party overlooked him in favour of Madarihat MLA Manoj Tigga for the Lok Sabha polls, has also provided an opportunity for the TMC in North Bengal, a region where it does not have an MP. The BJP, in 2019, had swept the region, winning seven of the eight seats.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Barla had defeated sitting MP Dasarath Tirkey of the TMC from the ST-reserved seat by a margin of over 2 lakh votes.
The BJP, however, downplayed the issue saying the developments will have no bearing on the Lok Sabha polls. “There is no doubt that Modi will deliver his Independence Day speech from the rampants of the Red Fort in August. The people are with us and will bless us with a huge mandate,” BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.
