BJP veterans protest against party's upper leadership in Kolkata

More than a hundred veteran members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) protested in front of the party's state headquarters at 6 Murlidhar Lane here on Thursday. They said that some members of the party's upper leadership had ignored them, despite the fact that they were instrumental in the party's victory of 18 Lok Sabha seats from Bengal in 2019.

The demonstration on Thursday revealed the division between veterans and novices within the saffron camp, as some party insiders acknowledged. It happened the day after a different group of BJP workers from North 24-Parganas became uneasy in the party's Salt Lake office.

The fact that Union Home Minister Amit Shah is due to visit Calcutta on Monday to officially launch a Durga Puja makes the protests at two prominent party headquarters on successive days noteworthy. Bengal BJP leaders have been given a goal by Shah to win 35 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2024.

Under the slogan Save West Bengal BJP, agitated BJP members gathered in front of the party's office at 6 Murlidhar Lane on Thursday. They carried images of party officials and charged that the office bearers were complicit in an act that would lead to the party's reelection in 2024.

"We do not desire a rerun of the Assembly polls from 2021 in the general elections of 2024." In order to assist the party gain 18 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal in 2019, the current office-bearers ignored individuals who truly worked for the party and instead granted responsibility to people who are close to Trinamul, according to a protestor.

Participating in the demonstration on Thursday was Birbhum-based BJP leader Anil Singh, who stated: "The current leadership is so desperate that they overlook such luminaries as Rahul Sinha and Dilip Ghosh. In our district, those of us who have worked for the party on the ground receive the same treatment."

On Thursday, Dilip Ghosh, the former state chief of the BJP, informed reporters that protests were starting because some party leaders were not paying attention to party workers. He declared, "Leaders should listen to everyone."

Samik Bhattacharya, the top spokesperson for the state BJP, acknowledged that the demonstration was "unexpected". "Anyone with grievances could have approached leaders properly," he stated.