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Contest for Bengal BJP chief's post may be acrimonious

Kushal Dasgupta in Calcutta

Despite efforts for a patch-up, a keen contest for the president's post of the faction-ridden West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party is on the cards. The organisational polls are slated for July 30.

Even though the party has initiated efforts to choose a consensus candidate, there is little sign that the warring factions, led by Union Minister of State for Communication Tapan Sikdar and state unit general secretary Paras Dutta, will agree to prevent a contest. While Sikdar wants incumbent Asim Ghosh to get another term, Dutta has put his might behind veteran Sukumar Banerjee.

The rivalry between the two groups came to the fore in the past few days with open diatribes and intra-party demonstrations shaking the party's organisation in the Left Front-ruled state. The BJP aspires for a bigger role in West Bengal after having gained a foothold in the last Lok Sabha elections with the help of its ally, the Trinamul Congress.

The situation has come to such a pass that Sikdar's supporters recently stormed the party headquarters demanding Dutta's expulsion for making derogatory remarks against Sikdar. The trouble began when Dutta, without naming Sikdar, described him as a Communist Party of India, Marxist, agent. ''There are a few hybrid watermelons in our party, having a green surface, but red within, who are actually acting like CPI-M agents and strengthening its hands,'' he had said.

Dutta had alleged that, more often than not, Sikdar was unnecessarily getting involved in tiffs with Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee weakening the ties between the two parties, thus helping the ruling Left Front.

Reacting to the comment, Ghosh came down heavily on Dutta, saying the party workers would not forgive him for having made such a scurrilous remark against Sikdar, who was responsible for the party's growth in the state.

After a meeting to settle their differences, both Dutta and Ghosh tried to put up a façade of unity. However, it came off when Dutta refused to support Ghosh for another term as state unit president at a joint press conference on Tuesday.

While Ghosh said the party was in search of a consensus candidate to bury the factional rivalry, Dutta suggested that Banerjee could be that candidate putting a question mark on the efforts to unite the state unit.

UNI

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