External affairs minister S. Jaishankar will deliver a speech in Calcutta on Friday but the conspicuous absence of state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar from the event that will have leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari as a co-speaker has become a talking point in the party.
According to an invitation letter issued by Khola Hawa, which is apparently an apolitical society that is organising the event, Jaishankar will be speaking on "New India and the World". Apart from Jaishankar, other speakers named in the invitation include former BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta and the president of the organising body, Suvendu Adhikari.
"This is not a political event. This event is organised by an apolitical organisation," said BJP leader and Khola Hawa member Shanku Deb Panda, explaining why Majumdar had not been invited.
According to Panda, Suvendu has been invited in his capacity as a public representative, the leader of the Opposition, and not as a BJP member. However, his clarification failed to justify why Majumdar, who is also a public representative as an MP from Balurghat, was not invited.
It is an open secret in the party that Dasgupta and Suvendu have forged a friendship. Both are close to the leaders in Delhi and have an aversion to those who call the shots in the state unit.
This is not the first time that a Khola Howa event reflected the rift in the saffron camp. The birth anniversary event of Rabindranath Tagore on May 9, where Union home minister Amit Shah was the speaker, had run into similar controversy. Other than Suvendu, the invitees did not include anyone from the BJP's state unit. As the issue snowballed into a controversy and matters reached Delhi, Majumdar was invited to the event to share stage with Dasgupta, Suvendu and Shah. However, the state president was not allotted time to speak at the event.
Several party members took a dig at the two camps and said earlier this week, the two leaders were seen together at a party event. But it took less than three days for the feud to get triggered again.
On Tuesday, Suvendu and Majumdar, along with national vice-president of the party Dilip Ghosh who heads a separate faction, came together to unveil the party's manifesto for the rural polls. Sources said that the show of unity was made possible under instructions from the central leaders.
"It was not an easy task and the three leaders would not have come together if it wasn't for a diktat from Delhi," a party source said.
On Wednesday, Majumdar attended an event commemorating the birth anniversary of the first Bengal BJP chief Haripada Bharati, where he said no one should consider himself bigger than the party. In his address, the MP said one must remember that in the BJP's scheme of things, the party was much bigger than the individual.
Though he did not name anyone in particular, sources said his jibe was directed at Suvendu. Earlier, Suvendu had come into conflict with Majumdar and the state general secretary (organisation) Amitava Chakraborty for organising events on his own without the party's nod.
Slamming top leaders of the state unit for walking different ways, a senior BJP leader said the rift was not a happy event at a time when the party was preparing for the Lok Sabha polls.