Suvendu meets PM, talks Bengal situation, seeks CAA in state

KOLKATA: Leader of opposition in the West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence in New Delhi on Wednesday to apprise him of the plight of BJP workers amid post-poll violence in the state.
In the talks of over 40 minutes, Suvendu told Modi that post-poll violence this time was more “communal” than “political” and urged the PM for “speedy implementation” of CAA in Bengal.
“I met PM Modi, J P Nadda-ji and briefed them on the current situation in West Bengal. More than 40 BJP workers were murdered in the state. This violence in the state should end,” BJP’s Nandigram MLA said after stepping out of the PM’s Lok Kalyan Marg home in Delhi.
On his two-day trip to Delhi, Suvendu met all BJP seniors — PM Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president Nadda — when Bengal BJP brass had no clue about his visit. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh’s comment the day before that he was not aware of Suvendu’s visit made it apparent that the leader of opposition didn’t go to Delhi in consultation with state unit leaders.
But Modi’s taking time out of his busy schedule for Suvendu has prompted speculation of the rise of a new leader in Bengal BJP, parallel to Abhishek Banerjee’s rise in Trinamool. BJP seniors in Delhi were impressed with the way Suvendu “tore into the Bengal government’s version” of PM’s meeting at Kalaikunda where Suvendu was among the invitees.
Suvendu’s uptick in Bengal BJP became all the more apparent when the party brass didn’t call state unit boss Ghosh to Delhi to get his views. BJP insiders do not see any drastic change in the organization structure but they didn’t rule out the growing perception that Delhi has started looking at Suvendu as the new face of Bengal BJP, moving past Ghosh and Mukul Roy.
A section within BJP tried to downplay the development, saying party seniors didn’t call Suvendu. “He (Suvendu) had sought an appointment with BJP seniors,” a state unit leader said. Whatever the fact, Ghosh had been staying away from Delhi all these days even after Bengal BJP planned a representation to Rashtrapati Bhavan on the continuing post-poll violence in Bengal.
BJP insiders hinted that things were “slipping out” of Ghosh’s hands after a host of Trinamool-turned-BJP politicians at state and district levels started tracing their way back to Trinamool.
Bishnupur MP Soumitra Khan, with BJP still, has already gone public against Ghosh’s “impromptu” comments that didn’t go down well with the public. Former Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy has blamed KSDA (Kailash Vijayvargiya-Shiv Prakash-Dilip Ghosh-Arvind Menon) for BJP’s poll debacle in Bengal. On his Twitter handle, Roy sent out the message that he had an hour-long “fruitful” meeting with Nadda on Wednesday.
Three BJP MPs — Khan, Arjun Singh and Nisith Pramanik — reached Delhi on Wednesday to brief BJP seniors about the plight of party workers in the state, particularly in constituencies they represent.
The challenge for Bengal BJP is to hold the flock together amid “political attacks” at grassroots and also the criminal cases initiated against Suvendu down to block-level karyakartas.