BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday admitted that Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh’s exit from the party had raised doubts and questions among a large section of activists at the grassroots.

Singh had joined the Trinamul Congress on Sunday.

“During the past three years, the BJP ran its organisation (in the Barrackpore belt) keeping Arjun Singh in the front. We watched the party functioning through his eyes. So for obvious reasons, questions have come up in the minds of party workers at the grassroots about his exit from the BJP. This exit has not demoralised them, but the doubts need to be addressed,” Adhikari told media persons in Kalyani.

Later, while taking part in the first organisational meeting at Shyamnagar with an aim to restructure the BJP in the Barrackpore belt in the wake of Singh’s departure, the Opposition leader said: “Arjun Singh is a passing phase and his exit is not at all a loss to ponder over.”

Adhikari told local BJP functionaries that a large number of youths would be inducted into the party soon to spearhead the movement against the Trinamul Congress in the Barrackpore belt.

“The BJP is not a one man party or a private limited company. Nobody is indispensable here. Leaders come and go but the party remains the same…,” he reportedly told the functionaries.

Adhikari, along with state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar, had earlier taken part in a walk in Kalyani condemning a recent attack on party workers by alleged Trinamul activists.