Unrest in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit of West Bengal continued as several agitated party leaders were spotted at Union Minister of State Shantanu Thakur’s residence in Thakurnagar on Sunday, days after he quit the WhatsApp group of Bengal BJP. BJP leaders Sayantan Basu, Ritesh Tiwari and Jayaprakash Majumder were among the ones who visited the Bangaon MP’s house. According to sources, some members of the present state committee were also present in the meeting. However, the BJP leadership was reluctant to disclose any details about the closed-door meeting.
Trouble started after the announcement of the new BJP committee. Since then, several BJP leaders and legislators left the party’s WhatsApp group. Over the past few days, there have been controversies surrounding the BJP’s new state and district committees.
As soon as the list of members of the two new committees came to light, questions have been raised about the organisational strength of the BJP in Bengal. Several state party leaders have alleged that they were excluded from the BJP’s state and district committees.
Recently, five BJP MLAs from North 24 Parganas district – Ashok Kirtaniya, Mukutmani Adhikari, Subrata Tagore, Asim Sarkar and Ambika Roy – left the party WhatsApp group alleging that Matua community had no representative in the BJP’s new state committee.
Meanwhile, according to sources, the BJP top leadership has given the responsibility to Thakur to meet the rebel leaders and realise their problem. Thakur might travel to Delhi next week to meet BJP president JP Nadda.
BJP’s all-India vice-president Dilip Ghosh said, “Shantanu is now in the news. He is the Union Minister, anyone can meet him. There is nothing wrong with meetings.”
Trouble started after the announcement of the new BJP committee. Since then, several state BJP leaders and legislators left the party’s WhatsApp group. Over the past few days, there have been controversies surrounding the BJP’s new state and district committees and the growing discontent among leaders.