Things are not hunky dory in West Bengal unit of BJP despite a sweeping electoral victory and subsequent ministry formation as the sight of former Trinamool Congress MP, Rukmini (Koel) Mallik flanked by chief minister Subhendu Adhikari and state BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya submitting her nomination for Rajya Sabha have drawn the ire of several senior BJP leaders and a section of the rank and file. Resentment is not restricted to simmering in the party ranks at the popular film heroine and former Rajya Sabha member from Trinamool Congress receiving a warm welcome in the saffron camp.
The dissenting group has carried their disenchantment to the national leadership. Underscoring their resentment, the dissenters have cemented the reasons behind their disagreement with the state unit’s choice.
Mallik resigned as a TMC member of Rajya Sabha in July this year. It came in the heels of BJP’s electoral victory in May and the removal of the 15-year long Trinamool regime.
The dissenters in state saffron unit feel Mallik who became a TMC member of Rajya Sabha in April and resigned in July is a time server. She had very little ideological roots in TMC and the same trend will hold true for her in the new party nominating her to the Rajya Sabha, it was alleged.
Koel’s qualification of being nominated as BJP’s Rajya Sabha nominee has been questioned. Comparisons were drawn between her and her father, Ranjit Mallik.
Unlike her father, she has never starred in a critically acclaimed film but Koel Mallik got a foothold in the world of Bengali films as the daughter of popular hero of parallel and commercial cinema, Ranjit Mallik. Making his debut in Mrinal Sen’s Interview, Ranjit Mallik also starred in Sen’s Kolkata ’71 and Satyajit Ray’s Sakha Prosakha had also been a bankable hero in violence, family drama and romance wrapped commercial Bengali cinema.
His daughter is yet to prove herself in parallel and award winning films. She has, so far, been succesful only in frothy entertainers, it was pointed out.
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She owed her Rajya Sabha nomination from TMC owing to former chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s penchant for having people from the world of glamour and entertainment around her, the saffron camp dissenters stated. Her political weightage is a nought having set not much store by ideology, it was stated.
After having declared itself as a party with a difference, Koel’s entry is a pointer that the BJP is following the Trinamool, it was further pointed out. The nomination of the actress will send a wrong message to BJP supporters.
It will smear the perception of BJP in public mind. The party will face the fallout of this situation in coming elections, it was apprehended.
Koel Mallik, the dissenters pointed out has nothing to her credit as a Rajya Sabha member, For she has not attended a single session.
.Former state BJP unit chief, Tathagata Roy has voiced his difference in the social media with the choice of the leadership. There has been resentment in state BJP when three former TMC Rajya Sabha,members Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Susmita Deb and Prakash Chik Baraik were
again made BJP MPs after they left their old party.
Skirting the charges, state BJP chief Bhattacharya felt real politic to be the decider in Rajya Sabha nomination. The BJP is neither a band party nor an outfit of. minstrels, he said
The BJP is a political outfit which has to run a government. For it, Bills have to be passed, he added.
In saying so, the state BJP chief supported Mallik’s nomination in Rajya Sabha where BJP needs the numbers. He binned the charge of seeping in of the ways and means of TMC into BJP.
The persons joining BJP from other parties will go by the ideology of the outfit they now belong to, Bhattacharya said. They will have nothing to do with running of “syndicates”, extortion and other characteristics of the previous regime, he added.
The national leadership appears to have taken notice of the resentment of the dissenters. It has been communicated that the state leadership will be held responsible if old timers quit the party or become inactive.
Requesting anonymity, a state level BJP leader said that the national leadership cannot shrug off its share of blame in Rajya Sabha nomination. After all, he added its nod is essential in selection of every candidate.
The BJP started its journey walking on hard rocks post its resounding victory over Trinamool Congress in Assembly election. One wonders whether strengthening its ranks with former Trinamool Congress leaders marks it’s march on thin ice.
