The BJP’s Haringhata MLA Asim Sarkar on Wednesday accused junior Union minister and Matua faction head Shantanu Thakur of reshuffling the party’s Bongaon district organisation committee “arbitrarily”, ignoring the contribution of workers in the recent panchayat election.

Sarkar, a Matua leader, said it would be better if the state leadership considered a change to keep the vote share from declining.

Sarkar also said he would not seek votes for the party if the Citizenship Amendment Act was not implemented.

Earlier on Wednesday, Sarkar, a renowned keertan singer and a popular face in the Matua community, caused the party embarrassment by categorically expressing his discontent in a Facebook post over the reshuffle.

The Haringhata Assembly segment falls under the Bongaon parliamentary constituency won by junior Union shipping minister Thakur.

BJP insiders claimed none of the recommendations made by the five MLAs was accepted by Thakur. This includes his elder brother Subrata Thakur’s recommendations.

Sources said it was decided that the selection of Mandal committee presidents would be done in consultation with the five MLAs on Thursday. But the list was released a day earlier without any discussion.

In his post, Sarkar said: “Subrata Thakur also told me about the meeting to be held on September 27… That’s what I told everyone. But, suddenly, without any discussion with anyone, the list of presidents of the presidents of the Mandal committee went out?”

“....I joined politics to protect the citizenship of refugees and became a legislator with the blessing of the people. I feel pained seeing all this. I don’t know how far the results will go in the future. I have lost words... but this has created discontent in the community.”

“It would be very unfortunate that If with such an act of a person (Shantanu Thakur), the party becomes weaker in the coming days, I am only concerned about it.”

Minister Thakur neither responded to calls nor text messages from this newspaper.

To a question on Sarkar’s discontent, the BJP’s state chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said: “He should have avoided sharing his discontent on social media. It would have been better if he had discussed the issue with the leadership. Even after that why a man like him expressed such grievance, would be looked into by the leadership.”