The organizational weakness of the BJP was exposed once again with the party losing two former ministers and past state president in the general election whose results were announced today.
Interestingly, Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition, who speaks to the media almost everyday refused to face the camera today after a poll debacle of his colleagues started pouring in.
Mr Adhikari got the seat of Debashree Chowdhury who was the minister of state for environment changed whimsically. Mrs Chowdhury had won from Raiganj Lok Sabha seat in 2019. She was fielded in South Kolkata and defeated handsomely by Mala Roy, who was the sitting MP.
Nisith Pramanik, minister of state for home was defeated by Trinamul candidate in Cooch Behar Jagdish Kumar Basunia.
However, Shantanu Thakur, state minister for shipping was able to retain his seat.
Following Mr Adhikari’s insistence Dilip Ghosh, former state president and MP from Midnapore was fielded from Bardhaman-Durgapur. Mr Ghosh was defeated by former Test cricketer Kirti Azad.
Political experts said the poor result of BJP is likely to create a dent in Mr Adhikari’s career. They said over the years he had misinformed the BJP headquarters in Delhi. Sandeshkhali, a non-issue was raked up by the BJP by making reportedly false allegations of rape. Videos emerged later which claimed the allegations were baseless and the whole issue was engineered by the BJP to reap political benefits. The experts said Mr Adhikari will have to face the central leadership and explain to them the poor performance in Bengal as Mr Modi had said the BJP would get the highest number of seats in Bengal.