“I’m a proud man,” says Dilip Ghosh, the BJP’s Bengal unit president. “Before I took charge…in 2014, no one was interested in knowing who held which post. Now, people are talking about five chief ministerial faces. My party has grown so big under my leadership!”
Aiming to topple the Trinamool Congress government of Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 assembly polls, the BJP has not named any CM face; Union home minister Amit Shah has hinted that it would seek votes in the name of PM Narendra Modi. Kailash Vijayvargiya, BJP national general secretary and Bengal in-charge, had said in August that MLAs would choose a leader after the polls. That, however, has not stopped speculation in media and political circles, perhaps because the Bengal BJP has no one particularly prominent leader, a ‘face of the party’.
Among the names doing the rounds are of Dilip Ghosh, Union minister Babul Supriyo, Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, former Tripura and Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy and Lok Sabha MP Locket Chatterjee. The name of former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly—an icon in Bengal—for the job fuelled fevered gossip for a time too. The cricket star, however, has not publicly expressed any interest in joining politics.
According to political commentator Biswanath Chakraborty, the BJP central leadership has rightly decided not to name a candidate. “If the BJP comes to power, Dilip Ghosh will have the highest chance because of the popular support he enjoys. However, no single BJP leader is acceptable to all sections of the party. So, naming anyone would cause internal tussle and the leadership wants to avoid that,” Chakraborty says.
Ghosh, a former pracharak, or whole-timer, of the RSS, joined the BJP state unit in 2014, became president in 2015, was elected as an MLA in 2016 and won in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. Yet, despite his popularity among the rural masses, two reasons are attributed to Ghosh’s alleged lack of acceptance as CM. The first is his rustic background. He is perceived by the educated bhadralok to lack polish in speech and demeanour, in a state where their class has traditionally wielded political influence. The second are his controversial/unscientific remarks that is believed to have antagonised the educated, urbane mass.
That is where the names of Babul Supriyo and Swapan Dasgupta spring up. Modi’s liking for Supriyo is well-known. He bagged a minister of state portfolio after winning from Asansol in the Lok Sabha polls and retained his place in the 2019 ministry as well. Dasgupta, a journalist, is known as the intellectual face of the party in Bengal. He is seen as part of the programme to win over the bhadraloks.
BJP insiders point out that it was Dasgupta who first criticised Mamata Banerjee’s COVID-19 management in March 2020. During October’s Durga Puja, Mamata imposed lax restrictions, while the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government imposed outright prohibition on the Puja, but allowed Ram Lila festivities. As this decision led to the BJP facing the charge of being anti-Bengali, Dasgupta publicly criticised the UP decision, appealed for its revocation and got his way.
In October, Dasgupta announced the party’s decision to hold an industry conference before the 2021 assembly elections—significant because ‘restoring Bengal’s economic heritage’ is a poll promise of the BJP.
BJP state leaders also say that the leadership is pleased with actor-turned-politician Locket Chatterjee, who led Bengal BJP’s women’s wing since 2018, was elected to the LS in 2019, is a member of BJP’s parliamentary party and was made a state unit general secretary in 2020.
Tathagata Roy’s name did the rounds after his tenure as governor of Meghalaya ended in August. The former BJP central executive member and state unit president earlier served as governor of Tripura, exited the party, then rejoined it. When asked if he was open to being a CM candidate, he said that he was open to any responsibility the party would entrust him with. The one senior leader who is not a putative candidate is Mukul Roy—former TMC heavyweight and the BJP’s national vice president—perhaps because of his preference for organisational work.
The TMC has mocked the BJP’s lack of a CM face. “They have no acceptable leader and that was why they are floating rumours around the likes of Sourav Ganguly,” TMC leader Sougata Roy said.
A senior Delhi-based BJP leader, however, said that not naming a candidate is part of a strategy. “People all over India vote for Modi. In Bengal, too, they would do the same and that is what we will seek.”
By Snigdhendu Bhattacharya in Calcutta
