Knives out in Bengal BJP after poll setback, Suvendu Adhikari the target

With the BJP failing to replicate its 2019 Lok Sabha election success in West Bengal and losing ground to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the fissures in the state unit are once again out in the open, with at least two prominent leaders criticising the state leadership in recent days.

The party’s Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan — he defeated his ex-wife and TMC candidate Sujata Mondal by 5,567 votes, the lowest among all 42 seats in the state — fired the first shot on Wednesday when he said, “Had it not been for the efforts of the RSS and the central BJP leadership, we would not have won the number of seats which we won. We would have drawn a blank. There are no experienced leaders in the party who have experienced electoral success in their careers. The leaders also lack organisational knowledge.”

Alleging that a section of BJP leaders had “an understanding with the TMC”, Khan said, “Maybe some senior leaders of the party entered into an understanding with the TMC. If that had not happened, then we would have won more seats in Bengal. Only experienced leaders can run the state unit. This seat (Bishnupur) should have been won by 1 lakh votes. If I were with the TMC, I would have won this seat by more than two lakh votes.”

Former state BJP president and the party’s Bardhaman-Durgapur candidate Dilip Ghosh, who lost to the TMC’s Kirti Azad by 1.38 lakh votes, also trained his gun at the state leadership. Without namingLeader of the Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, Ghosh said on Wednesday, “Conspiracies and backbiting are part of politics. I take them that way. Despite that, I worked hard enough, but success did not come. In politics, everyone walks around with a stick to poke you. The party was moving at a faster pace