A common trend among political defectors joining the Bharatiya Janata Party is their quick embrace of the party’s divisive rhetoric to prove their loyalty.
Himanta Biswa Sarma and Suvendu Adhikari are ready examples who come to mind.
Some of the most strident anti-Muslim speeches came from once bitter critics of the BJP who have switched sides to adopt hardline stances to ascend within the ranks of their new political home.
However, Adhikari’s parallels with Sarma extend further. Both were previously accused by the BJP of involvement in various scams before being warmly welcomed into the party and entrusted with significant roles in managing assembly elections. While Sarma successfully delivered results, his counterpart in Bengal, Adhikari, failed twice to meet the BJP’s expectations.
“One can call both of them neo-Hindus who have changed their avatars post their entry into saffron camp. Both were known as secular politicians when they belonged to Congress and TMC. Their dramatic transformation is brazenly opportunistic an obvious ploy to gain quick ascendancy in the saffron pecking order. Yet between the two, Suvendu is far more moderate. His outburst in the party meeting was more an expression of his frustration than deep-rooted antipathy,” observes veteran journalist and former executive editor of the Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika Suman Chattopadhyay.
Adhikari has reasons to be frustrated. He and his father, Shishir Adhikari, long-time Congress leaders, joined TMC at its inception and were key strategists in the Singur and Nandigram agitations, which propelled Mamata Banerjee into the West Bengal Chief Minister’s seat. He was also responsible for breaking CPI(M)’s organisation in the strongholds of West Medinipur, Bankura, and Purulia districts in the run-up to the 2011 elections, and Congress’s organisation in Malda and Murshidabad after coming into power. By all means, he delivered.
Ironically, the same tactics Adhikari employed as Mamata Banerjee’s right-hand man, to disrupt the opposition, have now come to haunt his prospects in his new party, BJP. Soon after becoming the transport minister in 2016, Adhikari would regularly boast about erasing the main opposition Congress from Malda and Murshidabad and succeeding in toppling three opposition-run Zilla Parishads in North Bengal – Malda, Murshidabad and Jalpaiguri. The Opposition at that time had repeatedly accused TMC of using “money power” and “coercion” to orchestrate defections and called the whole process unconstitutional.
As CM Banerjee’s key lieutenant, Adhikari ensured absolute TMC dominance in the 2018 Panchayat elections, which were marred by widespread instances of TMC cadres using violence to prevent opposition candidates from filing their nominations. Adhikari has made similar complaints about electoral malpractices and intimidation against his former party after the 2023 Panchayat election and in the recently concluded by-election.
Consecutive electoral drubbings have left Adhikari at a weak spot. Recently, Adhikari proposed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan of “sabka saath sabka vikas (development for all)” be rethought. Instead, Adhikari advocated for a policy of “jo hamare saath, hum unke saath (we will be with those who are with us),” while dismantling the party’s Minority Morcha, and attributing the loss of Lok Sabha seats in the state to insufficient support from minority communities.
Also read: Suvendu Adhikari Row Indicates ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ is Just Another BJP’s ‘Jumla’
This is not Adhikari’s first communal statement. Since joining the BJP in 2020, he has consistently delivered inflammatory religious speeches. However, as a TMC leader, Adhikari pitch could not have been more different. In an apparent bid for inclusivity, he would begin his speeches with “salaam” and regularly accused the BJP of fostering communal divides. Cut to the 2021 West Bengal assembly election, he was referring to Mamata Banerjee as “begum”, warning that Nandigram could turn into a mini-Pakistan if she was elected, and cautioning that if the TMC won, Hindus would no longer be able to wear traditional dhotis and sindoor.
This volta-face is not only limited to religion but also extends to another of his pet issues – corruption. In his speeches and social media posts, he regularly accuses TMC of its alleged involvement in job recruitment and chit-fund scams. What he carefully leaves out is his role and responsibility as one of the party’s senior leaders during the times when these scams happened. Adhikari was notably captured taking cash in a sting operation, known as the Narada cash scandal. BJP had used the videos extensively to project TMC leaders as corrupt in the run-up to the 2016 assembly election in the state. In 2020, shortly after he joined BJP, the video featuring Adhikari was quietly removed from its party website.
Earlier this year, Adhikari allegedly called a Sikh IPS officer “Khalistani” during the Sandeshkhali agitation, drawing sharp criticism from TMC, Congress, and the Sikh body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. BJP leadership, well aware of these speeches, did not murmur any criticism, aligning perfectly with the party’s stance that everything is acceptable as long as it does not embarrass PM Modi.
Aparna Bhattacharya is a Kolkata-based political analyst with experience in campaign strategy, communication and public affairs.
