Three Months in Power, Bengal BJP Struggles to Consolidate Without Adopting TMC’s Political Culture

Three months after coming to power in West Bengal, the BJP is facing a difficult organisational and political challenge: expanding its base without allowing its identity to be reshaped by the political practices it spent years opposing. State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya has warned party legislators and district presidents against extortion, intimidation and interference in local affairs, and to stop behaving like “chief ministers” of their Assembly seats. He said party representatives must ensure that people can clearly distinguish the BJP from the Trinamool Congress. He also warned that the party is maintaining dossiers on errant leaders and that no MLA or MP involved in corruption would be spared. The BJP has suspended 22 functionaries, including mandal-level leaders, after issuing show-cause notices to more than 250 workers over allegations including extortion, attempts to occupy TMC offices and anti-party activities. The crackdown is significant because the BJP’s rise in Bengal was built substantially on its promise to replace the TMC’s alleged cut-money, syndicate and extortion networks. The organisational crackdown comes amid resentment among sections of BJP workers over the accommodation of former TMC leaders. Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Dilip Ghosh has said BJP workers would not accept leaders who had allegedly harmed them politically. The induction of former TMC leaders Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik, followed by their quick elevation to the Rajya Sabha, has unsettled sections of the cadre, particularly as they had previously faced BJP allegations of corruption. Bhattacharya had earlier said the BJP no longer needed TMC leaders to win elections, while acknowledging that political arithmetic could remain flexible. He maintained that TMC leaders facing allegations of corruption, recruitment scams or links with syndicate networks would not be welcome.