Union home minister Amit Shah is said to have turned down the Bengal BJP’s plea for the removal of the Mamata Banerjee government and acknowledged the chief minister’s struggle on her way to power.

“A party that came to power with such a huge mandate cannot be removed by imposing Article 356.… Even Mamata Banerjee had to fight her way to victory when she was in Opposition. She had been attacked and beaten up by the CPM,” Shah was quoted as saying by BJP sources at a meeting with Bengal leaders at a private hotel in Rajarhat in the evening.

Bengal BJP leaders had urged the Union home minister to impose Article 355 or Article 356 in the state in view of the “deteriorating” law-and-order situation in the state and the allegedly regular attacks on BJP functionaries by Trinamul.

While Article 365 deals with President’s rule, Article 355 speaks about the duty of the Union to protect states against external aggression and internal disturbance.

Many BJP leaders in Bengal have been publicly demanding the invocation of Article 355 or 356 in the state and had hoped that Shah would look into this during his visit.

The sources claimed that during Friday’s meeting, Shah did not hide his discontent with the Bengal BJP’s approach. He is said to have cited his own example and claimed that even he has had to suffer physical attacks and legal harassment in the past.

“No one here has faced more violence than me. There are 10 murder cases against me. There are several other cases against me. I was brutally beaten up,” Shah was quoted as saying, adding that in Bihar 26 BJP workers had been shot to death in once incident.

Shah is also said to have told the Bengal BJP leadership that it mustn’t think that central agencies such as the CBI or the ED would do their job for them. He was reacting to a complaint by Birbhum BJP chief Dhruba Saha about the allegedly tardy pace of probes by central agencies in cases against Trinamul leaders such as Anubrata Mondal. Saha apparently claimed that the people of Bengal were getting the impression that there was a nexus between the BJP and the Trinamul Congress.

“The central agencies work in a process. If that doesn’t happen, we will be accused of using law-enforcement agencies to our benefit just as the Trinamul does,” Shah was quoted as saying.

Shah is said to have expressed his displeasure at the overall performance of the party in the state. He took a dig at the Bengal unit for its weak handling of social media as well.

“Amitji has asked us not to focus on big centralised events. He said that a single day’s show of strength wouldn’t help us politically and that we have to go to the booths and speak to the people to strengthen the organisation,” a source present at the meeting said.

Shah apparently told his Bengal colleagues that he would take special care of the Bengal unit from now on and visit the state more often.

“Many of us couldn’t speak today. Amitji said that unfortunately his programme had to be cut short because he had to go to Cossipore.… He will come again and spend a whole day with us and listen to what we have to say,” a BJP MLA said.

Shah is said to have indicated that he wanted a revamp of the state unit and that the Bengal BJP has “to begin from zero”, a source said.

B.L. Santosh, the BJP’s national general secretary (organisation), had reportedly expressed displeasure at the functioning of the Bengal unit. He reportedly said that nobody should think that the party is their “own property”.

“Whoever is leading the party now will not be here forever. Those who have allegations to make must do that in the proper platform of the party and not publicly,” Santosh reportedly said.

In the past year — since the BJP’s debacle in the 2021 Assembly polls — the party has been riddled with internal feuds and continuous erosion in its support base in Bengal. The likes of junior Union minister Santanu Thakur have spoken against the state unit’s general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakraborty.

On Thursday, as Shah was touring north Bengal, 80 members of the Jhargram BJP resigned in protest against the district chief.