Costs of compromise

With the induction of tainted TMC leaders, the BJP’s war on graft suffers a setback

1161630900 Balancing act: Mukul Roy (left) welcomes Sovon Chatterjee to the BJP at the party headquarters in Delhi | Getty Images

THE HEADQUARTERS OF the BJP’s West Bengal unit is located on Murlidhar Sen Lane, a narrow road off Kolkata’s Chittaranjan Avenue. A part of Kolkata’s heritage zone, the road is not wide enough for big cars to enter. Senior BJP leaders often give it a miss when they visit Kolkata, although the iconic building houses the offices of state BJP president Dilip Ghosh and the party’s election in-charge Mukul Roy.

But the BJP’s unprecedented success in the Lok Sabha elections has changed things dramatically. With the party winning 18 of 42 seats in the state, the party headquarters wears a busy look these days. The state unit’s voice is now heard in Delhi more than ever before. A new, spacious office with modern facilities is being built on Hare Street in the western part of the city.

“Come 2021, barring a big mistake by the BJP, the party is poised to take the chief ministerial seat away from Mamata Banerjee,” said an academic from Calcutta University. “I can tell you the rush at the party headquarters is not just because the BJP is in power in Delhi.” The BJP has been attracting members from diverse backgrounds, including the Tollygunge film fraternity. It has cells among government employees, teachers’ associations and even among Durga Puja committees, usually dominated by the party in power in Kolkata.

However, with its ever expanding base, the BJP is facing an unprecedented ideological crisis, especially regarding its anti-corruption plank. While the BJP-led Central government is pushing ahead with its anti-corruption agenda by not sparing even senior opposition leaders like P. Chidambaram, the decision to accommodate Trinamool leaders accused of corruption has become controversial. Roy, who was once Mamata’s confidant, is facing CBI investigation in the Saradha chit fund scam. Sovon Chatterjee, former Kolkata mayor and cabinet minister who recently switched sides, was seen accepting bribe in the Narada sting operation, which is also being investigated by the CBI. While Roy said the CBI talked to him as a witness, Chatterjee called the investigation against him a conspiracy. “The final judgment of the court will prove what kind of conspiracy it was,” said Chatterjee. Incidentally, none of the West Bengal BJP leaders were enthusiastic about admitting turncoats like Roy and Chatterjee. It was the party’s central leadership which sealed their induction.

Of the 18 MPs of the BJP, six had come from the Trinamool. The state unit of the party had fought street battles against many of them, like Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh and Cooch Behar MP Nisith Pramanik. “These leaders joined our party shortly after Roy had joined. What is happening now is the TMC-isation of the BJP,” said a senior BJP leader from North 24 Parganas district.

Manirul Islam, a Trinamool MLA from Birbhum district, was flown to Delhi last December and was given membership in the presence of BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. “He had announced that he was behind the killing of two BJP workers in Birbhum. He is a fundamentalist. The party did not even think of the martyrs,” said Sadhan Das, a BJP worker from Birbhum. Even Ghosh was not informed. But the state president’s strong opposition has forced the BJP to go slow on Manirul. BJP president Amit Shah later held a long meeting with Ghosh in the presence of state in-charge Arvind Menon to convince him about welcoming leaders from other parties to facilitate the BJP’s expansion plans. “The central leadership said if others were not accommodated, the party would not grow. But there will be proper screening henceforth,” said Ghosh.

State vice president Biswapriya Roy Chowdhury admitted that there was disgruntlement among BJP workers over the joining of Trinamool leaders. “We lost more than 60 workers during last year’s local body poll violence. We are trying to address our workers’ issues and convince them that everything is done for the betterment of the party,” he said. “It is not easy to survive in the BJP. Many have come and some have already gone back to the Trinamool.”

Chowdhury said the BJP followed a strict screening process before inducting members from other parties. “When we are certain that a person was trapped by his party leadership or he has done only a small mistake, we give him the nod. Sometimes, the inclusion of a person will outweigh his negativity. But no assurance will be given that he will be absolved of all cases or will be given plum posts. Even Roy was asked to appear before the CBI for interrogation,” he said.

The BJP leadership believes that the 2021 assembly elections is its best chance to unseat Mamata. But it is not going to be easy. At its last meeting on West Bengal elections attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah, working president J.P. Nadda, Menon, Ghosh and RSS ideologue Pradip Joshi, the issue of the BJP failing to win even a single seat in the final phase of the Lok Sabha polls had come up. The party lost all nine seats in North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts, which lay close to Kolkata. The loss showed that the BJP was unable to make serious inroads into Kolkata’s intellectual class. The central leadership has asked the state unit to address it.

Chandra Bose, state vice president of the BJP, said without winning the two Parganas districts, it would be difficult for the party to rule West Bengal. And, for that, support from seasoned campaigners like Chatterjee, is important. Bose, who fought and lost from the Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat, said he could not place polling agents in 500 booths in his constituency, while the Trinamool had two men per booth. “Here lies the problem,” he said. “Politics today is nothing but war. It is much different than what it used to be earlier.”

The induction of Trinamool leaders has robbed the BJP of its anti-corruption plank. Said a trade union leader belonging to the BJP: “We can no longer raise the Saradha or the Narada scams. Many of the accused are already in our party and more would probably join soon.”