Former state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh has apparently urged Satish Dhond, the newly appointed party joint general secretary (organisation) for Bengal, to speak to the party’s old guards for a clear picture of Bengal’s politics, the advice coming at a time fissures within the saffron camp in the state are out in the open.

“Dilipda asked Satishji to speak to party oldtimers. Though he didn’t say it in as many words, it was implied that only relying on what the new leaders are saying won’t be sufficient for his knowledge of Bengal’s politics,” a source close to Ghosh said.

Dhond met Ghosh at the latter’s residence in New Town, Calcutta, recently and the two leaders lunched together during which they discussed issues related to Bengal politics and the BJP situation here.Dhond’s appointment, according to several party insiders, is an attempt by the BJP’s central leadership to clip the wings of the BJP state general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakraborty who has been criticised by many party old guards for his decision to completely revamp the organisation and accused of “nepotism” in appointing new office bearers.

Complaints against Chakraborty had reportedly reached the offices of BJP president J.P. Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah. Contacted, Ghosh said: “Yes we met. I requested him to understand Bengal and its politics well.” By requesting Dhond to understand “the politics of Bengal well”, Ghosh has apparently urged him to not confuse Bengal with the rest of India, said a source close to Ghosh.

Ghosh, a national vicepresident of the party, was at the helm of BJP’s affairs in Bengal during the 2021 Assem¬bly polls. However he had privately alleged earlier that the functioning of the party was taken over by the central leadership, which had failed to understand Bengal properly leading to the BJP’s electoral debacle in the Assembly polls.“Since Satishji is from outside the state, Dilipda said he must have a clear idea of Bengal politics or else he’d repeat the same mistakes,” a BJP leader said, adding that Dhond was touring the state and meeting party workers.

Sukanta on CBI

The CBI on Saturday arrested three Trinamul workers for their alleged involvement in a case of postpoll violence in Bolpur. However, Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said: “We would have been happy if the CBI had worked faster…. A year is over and now people are being arrested. We wanted these arrests to happen even earlier.”The trio were identified as Panchanan Khan, Badal Sharma and Tirthanath Hazra.

Sources said they were accused of ransacking the home of a BJP worker and torturing a woman after the results of Assembly election 2021.

BJP clash

A BJP worker allegedly attacked a party supporter, accusing the latter of obtaining money from jobless youths, on the ICCR premises in Calcutta on Saturday even as a meeting presided by MP Prakash Javadekar was on inside the auditorium.

Sources said that a youth wing worker of the party, Abhijit Naha, attacked one Sabyasachi Roy Chowdhury, alleging that he extorted money from several jobless youths and telling them he (Roy Chowdhury) works for the CBI and knows many IPS officers and central BJP leaders. Roy Chowdhury denied the allegations and said he was an advocate and was called to ICCR by Samik Bhattacharya, the chief spokesperson of the party.Bhattacharya told journalists that he had called Roy Chowdhury for some work but added that he was introduced to Roy Chowdhury by Naha himself.