Tag: West Bengal BJP

  • Sukanta Majumdar accident: Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar’s car meets with accident, leader escapes unhurt

    West Bengal BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar narrowly escaped injury when his car met with an accident on NH-34 in Shantipur, Nadia district, on Sunday, police said. Majumdar said the accident took place when his car, which was trying to overtake a bus, was hit by the trailing pilot car. Three persons in the pilot car sustained injuries, he said.

    “As the bus was blocking a side of the highway, my car tried to overtake it and collided with a guard rail put up on the same side by police. In the process, the trailing pilot car hit my car,” he said.

    “I escaped unhurt but three occupants of the pilot car were injured,” Majumdar, the Balurghat MP, said. Majumdar, who was fielded by the party from Balurghat Lok Sabha seat for the second time, was returning from a football tournament where he was the chief guest.

    He demanded an inquiry to determine if there was any conspiracy to target opposition BJP leaders in the state.

    A police official attributed the accident to congestion due to ongoing road repair works along the stretch, with the bus partly obstructing one side of the road. Meanwhile, the BJP’s West Bengal unit shared an image of two cars, claiming that Majumdar was the victim of a life-threatening attack as the police pilot car, allegedly partisan to the TMC, collided with his car at a high speed. “Majumdar was saved due to the support of people of Bengal. The injured security personnel were admitted to a hospital,” the party said on X.

    Countering BJP claims, West Bengal Police said when Majumdar was heading towards Krishnanagar along NH-34, his escort vehicle belonging to the CISF hit his car near Gobindapur within Santipur police station area resulting in “slight damage”.

    West Bengal Police expressed regret over attempts to “distort facts with an ulterior motive” by claiming that the vehicle involved in the collision belonged to the state police.

    “Stern legal acti-on is being initiated against those resorting to blatant lies and trying to incite people,” the X handle of Ranaghat Police District under West Bengal Police said.

  • West Bengal BJP MLAs shifted to hotel ahead of Presidential poll

    By Express News Service

    KOLKATA: Ahead of the July 18 Presidential elections, the BJP in West Bengal shifted its 69 MLAs to a private hotel in Kolkata’s outskirts on Sunday.

    A total of 69 BJP MLAs were taken to the hotel which is said to be the first of its kind in the history of Bengal’s politics.

    Sources in the BJP said the party wanted to ensure the votes of 69 MLAs would be in support of NDA’s candidate Draupadi Murmu.

    The saffron camp, however, officially said that the MLAs would be given a training session about how to cast their votes in the Presidential elections on Sunday before they would go to the Assembly on Monday.

    A section of the BJP leaders, however, expressed surprise over shifting the MLAs to the private hotel. “Training is not required for voting in Presidential elections. The MLAs could have been allowed to stay at the MLA hostel. It appears, party wants to ensure all its MLAs will vote for NDA’s candidate,’’ said a senior BJP leader.  

    ALSO READ | Ahead of Presidential elections BJP MLAs moved to Bengaluru hotel

    KOLKATA: Ahead of the July 18 Presidential elections, the BJP in West Bengal shifted its 69 MLAs to a private hotel in Kolkata’s outskirts on Sunday.

    A total of 69 BJP MLAs were taken to the hotel which is said to be the first of its kind in the history of Bengal’s politics.

    Sources in the BJP said the party wanted to ensure the votes of 69 MLAs would be in support of NDA’s candidate Draupadi Murmu.

    The saffron camp, however, officially said that the MLAs would be given a training session about how to cast their votes in the Presidential elections on Sunday before they would go to the Assembly on Monday.

    A section of the BJP leaders, however, expressed surprise over shifting the MLAs to the private hotel. “Training is not required for voting in Presidential elections. The MLAs could have been allowed to stay at the MLA hostel. It appears, party wants to ensure all its MLAs will vote for NDA’s candidate,’’ said a senior BJP leader.  

    ALSO READ | Ahead of Presidential elections BJP MLAs moved to Bengaluru hotel

  • BJP grappling with shrinking vote base in West Bengal amid internal bickerings

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A year after its drubbing in assembly polls, the West Bengal unit of the BJP is struggling to hold its flock together amid the slide in its vote share, as reflected in the series of electoral losses since then.

    The state unit of the saffron camp, which has been experiencing churnings since the change of guard late last year, is still licking its wounds from the assembly poll defeat, with several leaders voicing concerns or raising complaints over the state leadership’s style of functioning.

    As efforts made by the top brass to unite the state BJP unit seemed to have hit the wall, all eyes are now on the likely visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who during his tenure as the party’s national president was instrumental in creating its inroads into Bengal.

    “Whatever has been happening is unfortunate. It has led to an uncomfortable situation for all of us. The party leadership is looking into it, trying to resolve all problems,” BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya told PTI.

    ALSO READ: Experienced leaders should not be sidelined, says Dilip Ghosh to West Bengal BJP chief

    The party, which had been grappling with reverse exodus since the assembly poll debacle with top leaders and legislators, including Babul Supriyo and Mukul Roy, switching over to the TMC, is now plagued by internal rebellion even as state unit chief Sukanta Majumdar urged members to approach him with grievances instead of speaking to mediapersons.

    BJP national secretary Anupam Hazra, who had recently called for introspection within the party, told PTI, “There are complaints against those in charge of the state’s organisation. The leadership here is not functioning democratically and trying to sideline experienced leaders. The new state president, too, is unable to handle the situation.”

    In a similar vein, a BJP state general secretary, who did not wish to be named, said, “If you don’t find out and acknowledge the disease, how will you treat it? To pretend everything is all right when it is not is like living in fool’s paradise.”

    The slide in vote share that began with Bhabanipur bypolls — from 35 per cent in May 2021 to 22 per cent in October last year — has continued unabated since then.

    ALSO READ: More leave Bengal BJP in aftermath of bypoll setbacks

    In Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, held last December, the party managed to get 20 per cent vote share — down from 29 per cent that it had bagged in the civic body-administered areas during assembly elections.

    Two months later, during elections to 108 other civic bodies, the BJP managed to garner just 12.57 per cent of votes and failed to clinch any municipality.

    In last year’s assembly polls, the party had pocketed nearly 36 per cent votes in these areas.

    The recent by-polls to the Asansol Lok Sabha seat, which was snatched away by the TMC, and the Ballygunge assembly seat, where the Left Front emerged as the first runner-up, only added to the BJP’s downswing in Bengal.

    According to saffron camp sources, the internal rebellion that had brewing since the state poll fiasco only grew stronger after leaders such as Ritesh Tiwari, Jay Prakash Majumdar and Sayantan Basu were dropped from the new office bearers’ panel.

    Although the party initially cracked the whip by suspending Majumdar, who was quick to switch over to the TMC, and Tiwari, it failed to stem the rebellion.

    ALSO READ: Rift in Bengal BJP widening as MP Locket Chatterjee meets dissident leaders

    State BJP sources pointed out that the lack of a dedicated central observer has also augmented the crisis, with BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who has been in charge of Bengal since 2015, seen nowhere since the assembly poll defeat.

    “Kaliashji doesn’t show any interest in party affairs of Bengal. The state leaders do not know who they should approach for problems,” another state BJP leader said.

    BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh, whose tenure as the state unit chief is considered the most successful one, too, has taken a dig at his successor Sukanta Majumdar “over his inexperience” in managing the party affairs.

    Majumdar has declined to comment on the criticism he is facing.

    State vice-president of the saffron party, Rathin Chakraborty, however, said there are just some “trivial issues” within the camp which will be sorted out soon.

    “Whenever a party grows, these issues come with it. All matters would be resolved very soon. The state BJP is a united family,” he told PTI.

    Political analyst Suman Bhattacharya feels that the BJP won’t be able to arrest its slide as it has “lost the plot”.

    “BJP’s growth was inorganic. As it has failed in the assembly polls, the slide that started will continue. Till the time the party can boast of strong homegrown leaders, the situation will not improve,” he said.

    Echoing him, political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty stated that lack of mass movements is loosening the glue within the party.

    “Any political party grows through mass movements. The BJP grew by inducting leaders from other parties. Unless they organise mass movements at the state and local level, there won’t be any change in the situation,” he added.

  • Suspended by Speaker, five West Bengal BJP MLAs including Suvendu Adhikari move Calcutta HC

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Five BJP MLAs, including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday filed petitions before the Calcutta High Court challenging their suspension from the West Bengal Assembly by Speaker Biman Banerjee.

    One of their lawyers said that the petitions are likely to be heard before the appropriate bench of the high court soon. The five BJP MLAs were suspended by the Speaker for future sessions this year for their alleged unruly conduct in the House on March 28, the last day of the Budget session.

    Besides Adhikari, the other MLAs include Dipak Burman, Shankar Ghosh, Manoj Tigga, and Narahari Mahato.

    The assembly had witnessed pandemonium on the day as ruling TMC and BJP MLAs scuffled after saffron party legislators demanded a statement by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the “worsening” law and order situation in the state.

  • Don’t want to be in hoardings, says West Bengal BJP MLA Hiran Chatterjee

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Actor-turned-BJP MLA Hiran Chatterjee, who goes by the name Hiraan, on Sunday said he does not want to be featured in hoardings after his photo was found missing in billboards put up by the party in his Kharagpur Sadar constituency but images of other prominent saffron camp leaders were featured in it.

    People, and not leaders who are seen in hoardings and posters, ensure a politician’s win in elections, Hiraan said.

    This statement of his was supported by leaders of both the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress, who said he has spoken the truth.

    “I am not the type who wants to be in hoardings and posters of the party. My work will speak for itself. I love to work for the common man, for people of my constituency,” Hiraan told reporters.

    “People have the last word in democracy. They are our God. Those who are in hoardings and posters won’t ensure our win. The last word will be spoken by people,” said Hiraan who left the TMC and joined the BJP in February, ahead of the assembly election in the state.

    Several party hoardings in Kharagpur town in Paschim Medinipur district feature photos of local MP Dilip Ghosh, BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar and leader of opposition in the state assembly Suvendu Adhikari.

    When contacted by PTI, Ghosh said, “Hiraan said the right thing. The BJP does not believe in hoarding politics. It will be more befitting to work for one’s constituency.”

    Claiming that he does not know who put up those hoardings in Kharagpur, the BJP national vice-president claimed that it is the Trinamool Congress which believes in hoarding politics.

    TMC MLA from Pingla in Purba Medinipur district, Ajit Maity, said, “Hiraan has spoken the truth. Many thanks to him.”

    A clash between two groups, reportedly between factions of the BJP, took place in the area a few days ago.

  • BJP’s Tathagata Roy bids ‘farewell’ to Bengal unit for time being

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Senior BJP leader Tathagata Roy, who has been lashing out at the party’s West Bengal leadership since the assembly poll debacle, on Saturday said he has decided to bid “farewell” to the state unit of the saffron camp for the time being, apparently indicating that he would stop criticism of its leaders.

    Roy said he would wait to see the municipal poll results in Bengal.

    According to sources close to him, the term ‘farewell’ doesn’t mean that he is leaving the party.

    Roy was trying to say that he would stop attacking the state leadership for the time being as his criticism led to an embarrassment to the party, the sources said.

    Earlier this week, the former governor of Meghalaya had said the party would become extinct if the state unit did not mend its ways.

    “I was not writing on Twitter to get applause from people. I was doing this to make the party aware of the fact that some leaders got swayed by women and wealth. Now only results will speak. I will wait for the results of the municipal polls. Farewell, for now, West Bengal BJP!” Roy said on the microblogging site on Saturday.

    State BJP leaders declined to comment on the development.

    “BJP’s well-wishers pointed out that I should make complaints about money and women within the party and not publicly. I politely tell them that the time has passed. The BJP can do whatever it wants to me. But if they do not radically reform their way of functioning, the extinction of the party in West Bengal is inevitable,” Roy tweeted earlier this week.

    Roy had asserted that he would continue to play the role of his party’s “conscience-keeper” after BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh told him that he was free to leave the camp if he was “upset and ashamed” over its style of functioning.

    Roy had recently been critical of the decisions taken by BJP’s West Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya, Ghosh, and senior leaders Arvind Menon and Shiv Prakash, ahead of March-April assembly polls, and blamed them in a series of tweets for the saffron camp’s poor show in the last assembly elections.

    The BJP won only 77 seats of the 294-member West Bengal assembly in the last elections.

  • Kolkata, Howrah civic polls on Dec 19; BJP may move HC seeking elections to all municipalities

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday gave its nod to the West Bengal government’s proposal to hold polls to the municipal corporations of Kolkata and neighbouring Howrah on December 19, a senior official said.

    The BJP said it is consulting lawyers to move the Calcutta High Court to seek directions for holding elections at one go to all municipal corporations and municipalities in West Bengal where polls are due.

    Elections to more than 100 civic bodies including municipal corporations of Kolkata and Howrah have been due for a long time, primarily because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

    These civic bodies are being run by administrators appointed by the state government.

    “Polling to the 144 wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and 50 wards of the Howrah Municipal Corporations will be held on December 19,” the SEC official said.

    The notification to this effect is likely to be issued on November 25.

    The Commission is likely to call an all-party meeting on November 20 and another meeting with the administration and police soon after the issuance of the notification, the official added.

    The state government had proposed to the SEC that elections to Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporations be held on December 19.

    A BJP delegation had met the SEC on Monday and demanded that elections to all municipalities and corporations be held together, state party vice-president Pratap Banerjee said.

    “We are planning to move the high court on the issue. We came to the high court today to consult with our lawyers in this regard,” he said.

    The Trinamool Congress accused the BJP of double standards on the issue of holding polls in a single phase.

    “When we were demanding single-phase assembly elections in West Bengal owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the BJP was gleefully supporting 8-phase polls. Assembly elections were held under central forces. Two rounds of by-elections were also conducted after that and the BJP lost miserably in all these,” Ghosh said.

    The SEC official said the last date of filing nomination papers is likely to be December 2. The papers will be scrutinised the next day and the last date of withdrawing the nomination will be December 4.

  • BJP demands simultaneous municipality and municipal corporation polls in West Bengal in February

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: BJP on Tuesday demanded simultaneous election to municipalities and municipal corporations in West Bengal in February and deployment of central forces for it. State BJP vice-president Pratap Banerjee told reporters that the party has filed a petition in the court with this demand and a plea to the judiciary to intervene.

    “We have serious apprehension that if the civic bodies election is held under the supervision of state police and administration it will not be free and fair. Everyone remembers the 2018 panchayat poll when a large number of people could not cast their votes and opposition candidates were beaten up and threatened by the Trinamool Congress. We do not want a rerun of it”, he said.

    Banerjee said that in the past 10 years under TMC rule only in 2011 the municipal election was held in a free and fair manner. Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumder too demanded that election in municipalities and municipal corporations be held together.

    “Don’t understand why the state is intent on holding these polls separately. This (TMC) government has stalled these polls for a long time and appointed administrators from its own camp depriving lakhs of voters the opportunity to vote,” he said.

    West Bengal Minister of State for Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Chandrima Bhattacharya had said that last week that talks are on to with State Election Commission to hold the Municipal and corporation polls in the coming days.

    There were reports that the state government recommended to the SEC for holding polls in Kolkata, Howrah and Bidhannagar municipal corporations on December 19 and in all municipalities of the state in January-February.

    Election to 112 municipalities and five municipal corporations are overdue in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • BJP’s claims of rise in vote share in Bengal desperate attempt to put lid on electoral reverses: TMC

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Sunday made light of BJP’s claims about rise in vote share in West Bengal, contending that it was a desperate bid to ignore the electoral reverses in the state and keep a check on the “quick disintegration” of the party following poll results.

    Senior TMC MP Sougata Roy was reacting to comments made by BJP president J P Nadda at the national executive in New Delhi, where he underlined the party’s performance in West Bengal assembly polls and the substantial growth in vote share compared to the 2016 assembly polls, and 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

    Nadda also said there are very few parallels in Indian politics to BJP’s growth in Bengal.

    “If you look at the whitewash of the BJP in the last two phases of by-elections, you will realise from 38 per cent during the last assembly polls, their vote share has come down to 9-10 per cent,” Roy told reporters in Kolkata.

    Asserting that such claims by the saffron party were a “desperate attempt” to deflect attention from the poll drubbing, the TMC MP from Dumdum said, “BJP is disintegrating in Bengal and the central leadership is aware of the situation.”

    The BJP is trying to boost the morale of its workers in West Bengal through such statements, but the “efforts will go in vain”, he added.

    The saffron party has faced defeat in the recent bypolls in the state and in the assembly elections held earlier this year.

    Nadda also took a strong note of alleged political violence against BJP workers in TMC-ruled West Bengal.

    “I want to make it clear through the party’s national executive that we are not going to sit quietly. We will fight a decisive battle for the party workers democratically in Bengal and lotus will bloom in the state,” the BJP chief said.

    Countering the charge, Roy said the BJP is labeling every stray incident and local dispute as post-poll violence and blaming the TMC.

    “The judiciary and different central agencies are probing the alleged incidents (of political violence). Has TMC’s involvement been proved yet”?” he said.

  • Suvendu Adhikari alleges EVMs changed before counting in Bengal by-polls; TMC trashes claim

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday claimed that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were changed before counting in four assembly constituencies where by-elections were held on October 30, and TMC candidates won by huge victory margins.

    Alleging that in certain booths, the number of votes secured by the BJP was less than that of the voters in the families of saffron party leaders and workers, Adhikari wondered how this had happened.

    The ruling TMC rejected the allegations as baseless, saying the by-polls were held under the Election Commission and counting took place under tight security by central force personnel.

    “EVMs in four assembly segments were altered before counting. Otherwise, how can Subrata Mondal in Gosaba and Udayan Guha in Dinhata win by such a huge margin? I have information that the EVM used in Behala Purba constituency (during the assembly elections) earlier this year was counted in Gosaba,” Adhikari said at a function in Kolkata.

    Guha won the Dinhata bypoll by a record margin of 1.64 lakh while Mondal emerged victorious by 1.43 lakh votes from Gosaba.

    The TMC’s Braja Kishore Goswami defeated his nearest BJP rival by 64,675 votes in Santipur, while in the Khardah assembly segment, state minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay beat the BJP nominee by a margin of 93,832 votes.

    While BJP leader Nisith Pramanik, who became Union minister later, won the assembly election by a wafer-thin margin of just 57 votes defeating Guha from the Dinhata seat earlier this year, another BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar won by a comfortable margin of 15,878 votes from Santipur.

    The two, however, resigned as MLAs to keep their memberships in the Lok Sabha after the TMC secured a landslide victory, necessitating the by-polls.

    “In the Santipur College booth, the TMC bagged 478 votes and the BJP 8.There are 20 BJP workers in that booth and the total number of voters in their families is 92. At a booth in Gosaba, one leader has eight voters in his family but the BJP got only one vote. How are these possible?” Adhikari said, indicating malpractices during the bt-elections.

    The allegations do not make any sense, TMC state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

    “The by-polls were held under the Election Commission’s supervision. The counting took place under tight security by central force personnel. Adhikari is cooking up such absurd stories hide BJP leaders’ failure to stop the quick erosion of support base after tall claims made before the assembly elections,” he said.

    After the by-polls, the tally of the TMC in the state assembly rose to 217, while that of the BJP came down to 75.