Two BJP leaders ‘beaten’ by party colleagues inside state headquarter

The incident was a fallout of discontent among workers over the alleged indifference of leadership towards party’s “victims” in post-results violence

The BJP won zero out of the 11 seats in the city’s core, and zero out of the 31 in South 24-Parganas.: Shutterstock

Arkamoy Datta Majumdar   |  TT  |  Calcutta   |  17.05.21: Two BJP leaders were manhandled by their colleagues inside the state headquarters of the party here on May 10, multiple sources in the BJP have told The Telegraph.

A senior state BJP functionary said on condition of anonymity that the incident was a fallout of the discontent among the workers over the electoral rout and the alleged indifference of the leadership to the party’s “victims” in post-results violence.

Sankar Sikder, the president of the BJP’s South Calcutta organisational district, had convened a meeting of leaders working under him at the party’s state headquarters here on Monday. He was supposed to discuss the issue of post-results violence and the plan to help the “victims”.

While the meeting was in progress — inside a room on the first floor — Sikder was allegedly hit by some of the attendees. Gangadhar Chatterjee, general-secretary of the organisational district, was also assaulted.

Sikder showcaused 10 persons for the attack.

“It is unprecedented that a district president and a district general-secretary were roughed up inside the BJP headquarters by party colleagues. Things went really out of hand…. While five of the attackers are officially recognised as members of the BJP, the other five hold posts in the organisational district,” said a source who was present when the alleged assault took place.

Sikder himself admitted the incident, adding, however, that it was “not serious”. “These are internal matters… nothing serious,” he said.

However, several other members of the South Calcutta district committee didn’t agree with Sikder’s attempt to play down the incident.

A large section of BJP workers in the organisational district — like in most parts of Bengal which handed the saffron camp a drubbing — has been intensely unhappy with the results.

In the party’s humiliating 77:213 returns from the 292 Assembly seats that went to the polls, the performance in the southern parts of Calcutta — including the city and South 24-Parganas — was exceptionally bad.

The BJP won zero out of 11 seats in the city and zero out of 31 in South 24-Parganas.

Like their colleagues in most other parts of the state, BJP workers in and around Calcutta, too, believe excessive intervention of the central leadership — which clearly remains unable to understand Bengal and its complex ethos — in every affair of the party in the state led to the massive defeat.

Many of these disgruntled workers and local leaders believe state and district BJP office-bearers should not have parroted what the national leadership said and could have stopped them from making blunder after blunder in Bengal.

Similarly, many BJP workers have been fuming against the leaders for not doing enough to support the “victims” of post-results violence.

“Neither has there been any honest analysis of our defeat, nor have we been compensated for our losses by the party. Our leaders only give lofty lectures. It is not a surprise some workers couldn’t contain their anger at that meeting,” said a source in the party.