The Aryavarth Express
Agency (West Bengal): Following a surprising setback in the recent Lok Sabha elections, where the BJP’s seat share in West Bengal fell from 18 in 2019 to 12, internal introspections have begun to pinpoint what went wrong. Many believe that poor choices in candidate selection significantly impacted the party’s performance.
Two constituencies frequently mentioned in this context are Medinipur in West Midnapore district and Bardhaman-Durgapur in West Burdwan district. In 2019, then-state BJP President Dilip Ghosh won the Medinipur seat by a substantial margin. However, this time, the party leadership shifted Ghosh to Bardhaman-Durgapur, a move that puzzled many within the party.
Supporters of Ghosh argued that he had nurtured Medinipur over the past five years, building a robust organizational base for the party. Despite this, the leadership believed that Ghosh, with his organizational skills, could secure a victory in Bardhaman-Durgapur, a seat the BJP had narrowly won in 2019.
Unfortunately, the results were unfavorable for the BJP in both constituencies. Ghosh lost to former India cricketer and Trinamool nominee Kirti Azad in Bardhaman-Durgapur by 1,37,981 votes. In Medinipur, BJP’s fashion designer-turned-politician Agnimitra Paul was defeated by Trinamool’s actress-turned-politician June Malia by 27,191 votes.
Ghosh indirectly blamed the party leadership for the poor candidate selection. “If clashes between personal interests and wrong policies make the efforts of the common party workers fruitless, it will be difficult to motivate them in the future,” he said.
Saumitra Khan, the re-elected BJP MP from Bishnupur, openly criticized the decision to shift Ghosh from Medinipur. “I can say for certain that we would not have lost Medinipur had Dilip-da not been shifted from there. Similarly, we might have also retained the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat had the sitting MP from there been re-nominated,” Khan asserted.
Besides Medinipur and Bardhaman-Durgapur, the choice of candidates for Asansol in West Burdwan district and Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district is also under scrutiny. The BJP shifted the sitting MP from Bardhaman-Durgapur, S.S. Ahluwalia, to Asansol. This decision came when his opponent, Trinamool’s Shatrughan Sinha, had already begun campaigning. Sinha defeated Ahluwalia by over 59,500 votes.
Additionally, the late selection of Abhijit Das, also known as Bobby, as the BJP candidate from Diamond Harbour with little over a month before polling, proved costly. Bobby faced Trinamool heavyweight and sitting MP Abhishek Banerjee, who won by a record margin of over 7 lakh votes.
The late selection of Bobby and the choice of candidates against prominent opponents like Abhishek Banerjee have raised questions about the BJP’s seriousness in fielding strong nominees against heavyweight ruling party candidates.