Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar on Sunday endorsed junior Union minister Shantanu Thakur’s Saturday forecast of the Mamata Banerjee-led state government collapsing in five months.
Majumdar suggested the possibility of a Maharashtra-like (the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena mutiny of 2022) scenario, in which Trinamul Congress lawmakers will desert the Bengal chief minister en masse.
“This government could crumble any moment. A government runs with the support of MLAs. If the MLAs suddenly feel that they want to support someone else, the government will fall. There could also be such an uprising, that all these lawmakers revoke their membership of the Assembly (necessitating by-polls),” he said. Sources close to him said Majumdar was trying to suggest a Shinde-esque mutiny by Trinamul lawmakers.
In the 294-seat Bengal Assembly – with one vacancy – Trinamul effectively has 222 MLAs, while the BJP has 70, and the ISF has one.
The state unit chief’s statement came a day after junior Union minister Thakur made a similar forecast, and three days after outrage over a video clip showing a person resembling leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, promising measures that would facilitate central intervention in Bengal.
Both Majumdar and Adhikari have publicly endorsed the imposition of Article 355 in Bengal. If Article 355 is imposed, the Union government is authorised to protect the state from external and internal disturbances.
There has been bitter criticism from non-BJP forces over such statements, which they say is proof that the saffron camp is in the business of engineering situations facilitating the premature collapse of duly elected non-BJP governments in states.
“The BJP thinks given the situation right now in Bengal, central intervention is imperative…. I have full faith in the Union government that the right decision will be taken at the right time,” Majumdar said on Sunday, responding to questions on Article 355.
Trinamul found the claims laughable.
“Every now and then, we get such outlandish forecasts and deadlines from the BJP. Good comic relief,” said Trinamul state general-secretary Kunal Ghosh.
The party’s Bengal minder Sunil Bansal denounced the state unit’s propensity to seek central assistance for its political battles here.
“Why can the Bengal unit not fight its own battles, unlike our units in Rajasthan or Telangana? Why does it always have to rely on the Centre?” Bansal was quoted as asking at a closed-door meeting of the party in its Salt Lake office, which was attended by Majumdar.
Bansal, the national general-secretary of the BJP, was replying to a statement made by national vice-president Dilip Ghosh, who said that many BJP cadres have started believing that there is a genuine understanding between Mamata and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is why no real action is being taken against her party or government.
Ghosh said that although the “Didi-Modi setting” propaganda was the brainchild of the CPM, the situation is such that the BJP’s rank and file in Bengal have started believing it, causing their shoulders to droop. He added that he faced the same allegations at a recently held RSS meeting.
Bengal’s Opposition parties such as the CPM and the Congress have been alleging a secret entente between Mamata and Modi for a while. They attribute to it the absence of serious action against the chief minister, her nephew and heir-apparent Abhishek Banerjee, or other key figures in the top tiers of Trinamul.
“Our leaders made tall claims before the media and chest-thumped over Article 355 outside. In that meeting, nobody uttered a word on the subject, in front of national leaders,” said a state leader.
