The West Bengal BJP has been witnessing a WhatsApp protest as several of its members have left the party groups after their names were excluded from the new committee.
Sayantan Basu was the first to take the step after he was dropped from the post of general secretary in the new state committee announced on Wednesday.
Basu, however, said: “This is normal. If you are not on the state committee, it is not ethical to be in the WhatsApp group. So, I left that group.”
Five MLAs from the Matua community – Gaighata MLA Subrata Thakur, Bongaon North MLA Ashok Kirtania, Haringhata MLA Asim Sarkar, Ranaghat South MLA Mukutmoni Adhikari and Kalyani MLA Ambika Roy – have also taken the same path following the reshuffle of the BJP’s state committee.
It was later learned that Ambika Roy had expressed a desire to return to the WhatsApp group.
Although no legislator agreed to comment on the issue, sources said that the MLAs left the WhatsApp groups to register anger for not paying attention to the representatives of the Matua community. The BJP announced the new state committee on Wednesday and no Matua leader was included in the list.
Some MLAs from North 24 Parganas and Nadia have also followed suit after the names of the organizational district presidents and in-charges were announced on Saturday.
Five MLAs from Bankura – Neeladri Shekhar Dana, Divakar Gharami, Nirmal Dhara, Harkali Patihar, and Amar Shakha – have also left their party’s state and district groups after the list of organizational district presidents were re-published on Saturday.
The organizational district presidents of Bankura (Sunil Rudra Mandal) and Bishnupur (Bileshwar Singh) districts were changed.
On Saturday, the BJP removed 30 district presidents and appointed new ones. Political analysts believe that the number of disgruntled leaders could increase.
The BJP held a meeting on Monday with the chairman and members of the state committee to discuss the issue.
BJP leader Joy Prakash Majumder said: “From January to December, the first six months were a tidal period for the BJP. Several Trinamool leaders shifted to BJP. After the election, the tide began to turn. The so-called leaders from the BJP joined the Trinamool. Secondly, some legislators have suddenly expressed dissatisfaction with the affiliation to the organization. However, these matters are temporary. The team has the power to deal with them and find a way to solve the problem.”