Now, BJP’s Kolkata unit gets a jolt, no respite in districts – Times of India

Kolkata: The Bengal BJP cracking the whip on two former state vice-presidents has hardly been able to stem the rising dissent within its party ranks.
BJP old guard Sunita Jhawar — a five-time councillor from Kolkata’s ward 42 till she was recently defeated — on Thursday wrote to the party’s North Kolkata district president Kalyan Chowbey, declining the vice-president’s post minutes after the new committee was announced. Jhawar said she was “unable to work” as district vice-president and was “resigning” from the post. She, however, made it clear that she would be available for party activities as an “ordinary worker”.
Meanwhile in Jhargram, BJP workers aggrieved with the formation of the new district committee there put the party office under lock and key, and launched a vocal protest.
Adding to the party’s embarrassment was the BJP’s new Alipurduar leadership, which named a person as district vice-president when he had left the party six months ago. Suspended BJP leader Ritesh Tiwari tagged the development on his Twitter handle to take a dig at “Virtual Chakraborty and Twitter Malviya”, without naming BJP state (organisation) secretary Amitava Chakraborty and the party’s point-person for Bengal Amit Malviya.
The face-saver was no dissent in Contai, the turf of leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari. According to Contai organisational district president Sudam Pandit, the party inducted the MLA’s younger brother Soumendu as district general secretary.
The Jhargram situation garnered extra attention after BJP candidate from Binpur assembly seat Palhan Soren joined the agitation. “BJP workers have realised that the party here has no spine, given the manner in which the district committee has been reconstituted. It is up to the district- and state-level leaders to decide whether they will allow this. Our former district president, Sukhamoy Satpathi, has sought five days to resolve the problem. We will chart our course of action after that,” Soren said.
In Alipurduar, vice-president-designate Bhaskar De told the media he had quit the BJP. “. I quit the party on June 22 (last year) and had informed Dilip Ghosh,” De said.