The BJP may have 77 MLAs, making it the primary Opposition party in Bengal in 2021, but its charge against Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress in the Assembly will have to be led by former Trinamul leaders, a prospect that is making the saffron camp deeply uncomfortable.

Although only a handful of Trinamul defectors to the BJP could make it to the Assembly this time, only Suvendu Adhikary and Mukul Roy carry enough political acumen and experience to take on a firebrand leader like chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

After all, they were both part of Mamata’s inner circle when they were with Trinamul.

“There are not enough leaders to challenge the chief minister on the floor of the House. In such a scenario we have to depend on those coming from Trinamul,” admitted a BJP leader.

On Friday, Mukul Roy, who left Mamata and joined the BJP in 2017 and is now a national vice president of the party, took oath as an MLA after winning his maiden election from the Krishnagar North constituency. He spent some time with state Trinamul president Subrata Bakshi at the Assembly but did not attend the meeting of BJP legislators called by state party president Dilip Ghosh.

Another notable absentee at the BJP meeting was Adhikary, who retained the Nandigram seat on a BJP ticket, defeating the chief minister no less.

Now, the BJP’s main worry is centred around the rivalry between Roy and Adhikari, and the prospects of it being carried over to their new party. During their days in the Trinamul, Roy and Adhikary shared testy ties, each trying to outdo the other in front of Mamata.

In 2011 and 2016, the Left and the Congress had emerged as the main Opposition parties. In 2011, it was Surjya Kanta Mishra and five years later Abdul Mannan led the Opposition on the floor of the House. Today, the BJP, which was banking on late entrants from the Trinamul camp to help the party navigate the complex legislature processes, is now left with just two strong contenders, both coming from Trinamul.

Turncoats did not have it easy in this election. Most sitting Trinamul MLAs who switched camps ahead of the election lost their seats. Although Roy won comfortably by over 35,000 votes, his son, Subhrangshu, failed to make the cut. Likewise, Adhikari’s men failed to win the bulk of the seats in his home turf of East Midnapore.

Among those who joined the BJP with Adhikary but lost the elections are former minister Rajib Banerjee, Vaishali Dalmia, Probir Ghoshal, Saikat Panja, Biswajit Kundu and others.

“The reason why the party took them in and gave them tickets was that they had proved capable of winning and getting others to win too. The move did not help us gain power in the state,” rued a state-level BJP functionary.

BJP will now try to keep up the pressure on the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul government. It seems to have started off badly, as it has been wrong-footed several times for trying to give a communal spin to post-poll violence by spreading fake images and videos on social media.

In 2014 too, the BJP had tried to focus on the politics of violence in Bengal soon after the Lok Sabha elections with the party’s central leaders visiting trouble spots in Bengal. But little came of it politically.

A similar strategy is being tried this time at the administrative level too. The Union home ministry has sent a delegation to probe the post-poll violence. Members of the team called on Governor Jagdish Dhankar on Friday and asked for a report on the violence from Raj Bhavan.

With 77 MLAs, this is the highest number of seats that the BJP has ever won in Bengal. “There will be occasions for us to hammer the government. While Mukul is good in the background, he has shown little to inspire confidence as a speaker,” said a BJP leader.

After Friday’s meeting with party MLAs, state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said they would boycott the election of the Speaker and the rest of the session as a mark of protest against post-poll violence.

"Many of our MLAs could not take oath because of the condition in their constituencies. They won't come to Calcutta to take the oath till the violence stops. Our MLAs will not attend the session," Ghosh told the media.