Dilip Ghosh’s oblique statement sparks speculations on inner-party factions in Bengal BJP

PTI, Kolkata, Jun 6, 2024 : At a time when fissures within the BJP West Bengal unit have started to show in the wake of the party’s ‘disappointing’ performance in the parliamentary polls in the state, a social media post of veteran leader Dilip Ghosh sparked speculations on whether the ‘old-versus-new’ debate is about to get reignited.

Ghosh on Thursday posted on X a quotation of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee: “Keep one thing in mind, even one old Karyakarta of the party should not be neglected. If necessary, let ten new Karyakartas get separated. Because the old workers are the guarantee of our victory. Trusting new Karyakartas too quickly is not advisable.”

The post came in the wake of Ghosh’s shocking defeat from the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat in the hands of TMC’s Kirti Azad by nearly 1.38 lakh votes.

Ghosh also told reporters that it was now established that sending him to contest from his old constituency to a new one was "a mistake".

While the BJP had publicly proclaimed its target of winning 30 Lok Sabha constituencies or more from Bengal this time, it had to ultimately settle for 12 seats, six less than its 2019 tally.

Ghosh, former party state president and MP from the Medinipur constituency, was relocated to Bardhaman-Durgapur, a seat where the battle against TMC was perceptively tough, where he replaced outgoing MP SS Ahluwalia. The latter, in turn, was moved to Asansol. The party’s sitting MLA from Asansol Dakshin, Agnimitra Paul, replaced Ghosh at Medinipur.

All three BJP candidates were trounced by their TMC counterparts in the recently-concluded polls.

The reshuffle of candidates, though finalised by the party’s central election committee, is widely believed to have been brought about at the instance of the state’s leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who jumped ship from the TMC ahead of the 2021 state polls.

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Ghosh said, “It’s established now that the decision to send me to fight from Durgapur was a mistake.”

“The party trusted me with the job of winning from Durgapur, which I failed. We will look into what went wrong. But I had come to this party empty-handed and the fortunes have turned a full circle with me getting empty-handed once more. Let’s see where things go from here,” he told the media elsewhere.

Ghosh, a leader with strong RSS roots, who had earlier shied away from questioning the party’s decision to change his seat and maintained he did his best to overcome the fresh challenge, sounded out of sync with his previous statements for the first time.

Speaking on the development, senior TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee said, “I have always considered Dilip Ghosh a true BJP man. It’s unfortunate for him that his party failed to make a proper assessment of his qualities. It’s good for us since we defeated him but he deserved better from his party.”

Banerjee added, in tangential reference to Adhikari, that he was “certain” that the saffron party under its current state leadership would wither away during the 2026 state polls.