The Dilip Ghosh camp in the BJP on Wednesday raised several questions on the party’s decision to keep the former state president and his close associates away from matters related to Calcutta Municipal Corporation polls.

The party's civic polls campaign was led by state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar and leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. Ghosh was hardly visible in the campaign phase.

“Almost all candidates wanted Dilipda in their campaign. Yet, he could campaign for a handful of candidates.… It was clear that the party leadership was unwilling to give any space to him,” a source close to Ghosh said.

“Now after these horrendous results, the natural question is whether it was right to keep him away,” this person said.

The supporters of Ghosh said their questions couldn’t be wished away as the BJP registered unprecedented organic growth in Bengal under the leadership of Ghosh.

During Ghosh’s tenure as the state president, BJP’s count of MPs rose from two in 2014 to 18 in 2019. In Calcutta itself, where the BJP never had a proper organisation, the poll percentage in favour of the BJP zoomed to about 30 per cent in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the BJP received almost 29 per cent of votes in Calcutta.

“It is true that many of Dilipda’s comments had embarrassed the party but it is beyond doubt that he has been the biggest crowd puller and the workers trust him. He should have been asked to be more involved in the party’s poll campaigns,” a state BJP functionary said.

When Ghosh was contacted by this newspaper, he refused to comment much on the electoral outcome and parroted the party line saying there was large-scale rigging in the CMC polls.

But on being insisted, he opened up. “Those who led the party in the CMC polls didn’t have any experience of doing politics in Calcutta. One would need to understand the pulse of the city for that,” Ghosh said.

Although not everyone in the BJP was as vocal as Ghosh or his aides about the poll debacle, the discussion in the saffron circle revolved around how the party’s vote share plummeted in the absence of a proper leadership.

Ghosh’s question on whether there was any leader who could lead the party in Calcutta sparked another speculation in the BJP camp as several party old-timers are now sceptical on whether Sajal Ghosh, BJP’s newly elected councillor of ward 50, would be given a higher space in the city’s politics.

Some of these leaders, on condition of anonymity, told this newspaper that they were apprehensive of Sajal’s rise in the party hierarchy.

“We know Sajal won in his own strength and didn’t need the BJP to back him. This is why he will now be placed above our heads,” a senior leader said. “Meena Devi Purohit and Vijay Ojha have also won on their own might. But they will never be given importance.”

The central leadership of the party is also unhappy with the civic poll results. Majumdar, Adhikari and state general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakraborty have been summoned to Delhi to meet national general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santosh on Thursday. Ghosh will also be present at the meeting, where the disastrous outcome of the civic polls will be discussed.

New state committee

Bengal BJP announced its new state committee on Wednesday. While MPs Locket Chatterjee and Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato have been retained as general secretaries, Sayantan Basu, Rathin Bose and Sanjay Singh have been replaced by Jagannath Chattopadhyay and MLAs Agnimitra Paul and Dipak Barman.

MP Saumitra Khan has been replaced by Dr Indranil Khan as the youth wing chief, while Tanuja Chakraborty is taking over as the chief of the women’s wing.

Veteran BJP leader Pratap Banerjee, along with Basu and some others, have been dropped from the committee altogether.