An unprecedented protest was witnessed in Malda town on Wednesday as around 100 BJP workers demonstrated at a prominent crossing of the town under the banner of BJP Banchao Committee (Save BJP Committee), accusing some party leaders of corruption and autocratic behaviour towards party workers in the grassroots.

The demonstration, which continued for nearly an hour, had workers raising their voices against those leaders who, they claimed, were running the party in consultation with turncoats from Trinamul.

“The party is way different from what it was in 2019. A former district BJP president, who led the party to unprecedented success in 2019, was suspended for two years, re-inducted for merely two months before the elections and again expelled. This is unacceptable,” said Shib Shankar Poddar, a former district president of BJP’s Yuva Morcha.

Another party worker who shouted slogans against leaders, said they hardly had any other option but to launch protests to “save the party” in Malda.

“Those who struggled for years for the interest of the party have either been cornered or suspended or expelled by few district BJP leaders who have no contact with the masses. We hardly have any other option but to protest and draw attention of the BJP state leadership,” he said.

Protesters, who called themselves “BJP veterans” also trained guns at Khagen Murmu, the BJP MP of Malda north. Murmu, a former CPM leader who defected to the saffron camp in 2019, ahead of the parliamentary elections.

“The BJP MP, who is a turncoat CPM leader, did nothing after winning the election. He has only installed some streetlights. The work benefited some of his aides as they got commission of those projects,” Poddar said.

Embarrassed by the public display of discontent, district BJP leaders apparently ignored the agitation.

“Ours is a disciplined party. A section of unruly workers, against whom actions were taken for multiple undisciplined activities, are trying to tarnish the image of party leaders. They are out of the mainstream of the party. Such demonstrations will have no effect on party workers or supporters,” said the district BJP president Gobinda Chandra Mandal.