Kolkata: The postponement of Union home minister Amit Shah’s March visit to West Bengal, rescheduled to April on the pretext of Eid and logistical constraints, has become symbolic of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) deepening struggles in the state. Once touted as the party’s next frontier, West Bengal now appears increasingly out of reach due to factional infighting, defections, corruption scandals, and cultural disconnect.
Shah was initially scheduled to visit the state on March 29–30. While BJP insiders cite Eid as the reason for Shah’s delayed trip, sources suggest a deeper crisis. The lack of organisational unity and the visible factionalism in the state BJP has made any major mobilisation a risk-laden affair.
Despite the failure of its high-pitch communal campaign during the 2021 Assembly elections, the party appears to be sticking to the same retooled approach as Bengal braces for next year’s crucial electoral showdown. Shah, a shrewd political strategist, is well aware of the hurdles ahead – fractured leadership, exodus to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and grassroots clashes that have stalled critical organisational exercises, such as booth committee formations.
“A message has been sent from the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] to Amit Shah that there is no grassroots-level organisation left in Bengal – the structure that once existed has eroded. Even though a few leaders shout from outside, most of the elected representatives are ineffective. Amit Shah is a busy and intelligent politician; he doesn’t want to waste his time coming to Bengal,” noted veteran journalist and political analyst Sudipta Sengupta.
Internal divisions have plagued the BJP in Bengal for years, but burst into public view during the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections, as senior leaders revolted against central figures like Kailash Vijayvargiya and Shiv Prakash. Veteran leader Tathagata Roy lambasted the party’s candidate selection process, claiming it had devolved into a “festival of lust for women and wealth.” The dissent grew louder when fellow leader Amitabh Chakraborty took to social media with live, unverified allegations accusing the top brass of adultery.
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Now, public infighting and physical altercations have turned party events into spectacles of disunity. The situation worsened during booth committee elections, where violent clashes erupted in East Medinipur, Cooch Behar, and South 24 Parganas. In Kolkata, violence between rival party workers at a felicitation event laid bare the animosity between factions. The incident culminated in one BJP faction filing a police complaint against the other, exposing the rot within.
“Amitji’s programme is currently on hold. What is happening in various areas within the party is unfortunate. Outsiders have infiltrated the party and are causing these issues. Those who smeared ink on the party president in Kolkata are not BJP workers. And if they are, the party too will smear them with ink,” said Shamik Bhattacharya, Rajya Sabha MP and state BJP spokesperson.
Despite loud overtly communal rhetoric from BJP leaders like Suvendu Adhikari and Dilip Ghosh, the party’s elected representatives in Bengal remain conspicuously inert. Compounding this inertia is continuous trickle defections to the TMC. The latest to go is Haldia MLA Tapasi Mondal, who accused Adhikari (the leader of the opposition in the Assembly) of sabotaging development in her constituency. With legislators and MPs steadily abandoning ship, the party’s credibility in Bengal appears increasingly hollow.
Meanwhile, Rs 161 crore fund allocated for booth-level expenses during the last Lok Sabha elections remains unaccounted for, raising serious questions about financial transparency and internal oversight.
Senior leader Anil Singh alleged, “The district leadership has become involved in unethical and corrupt practices just like the TMC and is looting large sums of money. Even though I’ve been with the RSS since childhood, raising corruption issues with the top leadership yields no result. Funds sent for building the district BJP office are being looted.”
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s recent 13-day tour across Kolkata and Bardhaman was aimed at re-energising the morale of the party’s grassroots base. However, his efforts were reportedly undermined by the BJP’s reliance on communal rhetoric rather than cultural integration. Within the legislative assembly, BJP MLAs like Shankar Ghosh and Bankim Ghosh have opposed Adhikari’s leadership. Consequently, the party has become more dependent on the legislative party leader rather than the state president.
“The truth is, BJP has failed to penetrate Bengal’s cultural fabric. According to the RSS, without cultural dominance, political power is impossible. That is precisely what is unfolding through these events,” summed up Sengupta.
Translated from the Bengali original and with inputs by Aparna Bhattacharya.
