The Bharatiya Janata Party had announced its arrival in West Bengal with the induction of TMC stalwart Mukul Roy in 2017. Roy knew the nerve of Bengal politics. Mukul Roy leaving the TMC was an organisational nightmare for the TMC. With him, he took all his resources, knowledge and most importantly – contacts. With his help, the BJP managed to erect an organisation for itself in the state which by 2019 – started giving goosebumps to Mamata Banerjee. After the BJP’s spectacular performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, the party was convinced that the assembly polls were for it to win.
However, that did not pan out as expected. The BJP suffered a defeat, and although its seat share and vote count in the state did rise fairly – the party lost the battle to the TMC. Such is Bengal politics that the winner takes it all. So, immediately after TMC’s stunning win, many BJP leaders – who happen to be turncoats from the Ma, Mati, Manush party started signalling to Mamata Banerjee that they wanted to do a ghar wapsi. Among the very first leader to have jumped ship to the TMC is Mukul Roy, along with his son Subhranshu.
Mukul Roy’s betrayal is most definitely a setback for the BJP – one which will demotivate a largely Mukul-supportive cadre and dampen the mood in the party’s organisation in Bengal. With Mukul Roy abandoning the BJP, the floodgates will be opened for many others jumping ship back to the TMC. It is quite some time before the BJP can begin breathing a sigh of relief.
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Once the reverse exodus from the BJP to TMC is complete, and the party knows who has abandoned it and who has stuck around – it will have to begin work from scratch. The Lok Sabha polls are two and a half years away, and the party has no time to waste. It will need to breathe life into its organisation soon and reform itself drastically in the state.
There are many lessons for the BJP, as well as its supporters in West Bengal to learn from Mukul Roy’s exit, and the significant reverse exodus which this jump will trigger. BJP needs to stop inducting leaders from other parties and relying on them with its life. These are politicians, and they will inevitably go with the flow of the river. What the BJP needs are motivated, young, ideologically driven and loyal leaders. These qualities must not just be reflected by leaders, but must also be found among all BJP cadre in the state.
The BJP has no other way around – it will now have to put in double the effort it did all this while, if it wishes to challenge the TMC as soon as in 2024. Furthermore, it needs to stand rock solid with its cadre and ground workers – who are allegedly being hunted down by the ruling establishment in the state. It must protect its workers, otherwise, the party will have close to nobody carrying its flag two years from now, and that could have nationwide repercussions.
The BJP needs to stop trusting non-organic leaders in West Bengal. It must identify leaders, and if need be, build leaders whose sole motivation is to oust the TMC from power; not jump ship to it when the party loses. BJP cannot trust its flock of MLAs in its entirety right now. Many of them are Mukul Roy loyalists, who will not blink twice before retracing their steps back to the TMC.
The people of West Bengal who voted for the BJP have also been betrayed by Mukul Roy and his coterie of self-serving MLAs. The BJP owes it to such voters to build an organic leadership for itself in the state – who will stick by the party in the good as well as tough times.
