Why removal of Kailash Vijayvargiya as Bengal BJP Gen Secretary and appointment of Sunil Bansal is a step to douse infighting fire in the state

Kolkata: In the past few weeks, the central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party including president JP Nadda and Home Minister Amit Shah had several meetings with the Bengal BJP leadership. Sources confirmed that BJP leaders put forward several demands in front of the top brass, one of the most crucial requests was the removal of Kailash Vijayvargiya as BJP general secretary in charge of Bengal. As the crackdown from the central agencies against the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government is going on, the BJP is trying to revamp its organisation and strategy. 

This week BJP president JP Nadda has appointed the key strategist behind Uttar Pradesh election success Sunil Bansal as the General Secretary and in charge of West Bengal. He has replaced senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya. This action is crucial for many reasons, the most important of which is that it can douse the fire of internal conflict within the Bengal BJP unit.

According to several media reports and BJP insiders in the recently held meeting between Home Minister Amit Shah and Bengal BJP leader and Leader of opposition Shubhendu Adhikari the Home Minister suggested that Bengal BJP should hit the street and do away with differences between its leaders. 

How Kailasha Vijayvargiya's grand plan to build BJP with defectors from TMC failed

In 2015 Kailash Vijayvargiya took charge of Bengal as the general secretary. Then the party had a negligible presence in the state. With time things started to change. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh launched their mission to conquer West Bengal. Dilip Ghosh, a trusted lieutenant of the RSS was appointed as the Bengal BJP chief. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Kailash Vijayvargiya played a key role in bringing Mukul Roy into BJP‘s fold from the TMC. Roy was the second in command of Mamata Banerjee in the organisation. Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy jointly launched the mega plan to poach several TMC high-profile leaders into BJP‘s fold. The party did spectacularly well in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and won 19 out of 42 seats.

This became the model for Bengal BJP. According to the party insiders Kailash Vijayvargiya decided along with the central leadership and also a section of state leadership to continue this model and to break the Trinamool congress. Before the 2021 Bengal assembly elections, it appeared to everyone that this plan is a grand success. Every day heavyweight TMC leaders started to change their ship. Several MLAs, ministers, MPs and other leaders joined the BJP. But the party lost miserably in the Bengal assembly elections.

Within a month of this defeat, Mukul Roy left the BJP and returned to TMC. The brazenness of the grand plan of Kailash Vijayvargiya became exposed as the majority of the TMC leaders who joined the BJP before the assembly elections did Ghar Wapsi. Around this time a significant section of the BJP leaders started raising questions against Vijayvargiya’s intentions and plans in terms of managing the organisation during the elections. 

How discontent was growing against Kailash Vijayvargiiya in Bengal

After the loss of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Bengal assembly elections a section of the senior leadership launched an unhindered attack against Kailash Vijayvargiya and other associated central leadership. For example, former governor and Bengal BJP chief Tathagatha Roy tweeted, "Kailash-Dilip-Shiv-Arvind (KDSA) foursome have dragged the names of our respected Prime Minister and Home Minister through mud and have sullied the name of the biggest political party in the world. Sitting atop Agarwal Bhavan of Hastings (W Bengal BJP’s election headquarters)."

Kailash-Dilip-Shiv-Arvind (KDSA) foursome have dragged the names of our respected Prime Minister and Home Minister through mud and have sullied the name of the biggest political party in the world. Sitting atop Agarwal Bhavan of Hastings (W Bengal BJP’s election headquarters)

— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) May 6, 2021

The senior leadership and other sections of the party became apprehensive about this development and this forced more deterioration in the organisational condition of the Bengal BJP unit. After the 2021 Bengal assembly elections, civic polls started taking place and also by-elections. The BJP insiders said that despite repeated requests Vijayvargiya did not help the party in these elections. Significantly, according to the state BJP leaders the central leadership also maintained a distance from the Bengal unit during this struggling period. 

When the organisational infighting started going out of control then the BJP central leadership removed Dilip Ghosh as the Bengal BJP chief and appointed Sukanta Majumdar. But nothing much changed and the party functioned in absence of Vijayvargiya. He was there officially but not in action. 

Why Sunil Bansal will have to play a key role to bring ease between Bengal BJP and RSS

From the time of defeat in the assembly elections in absence of proper leadership and guidance, the conflict between the Bengal RSS and the BJP has increased. It is unprecedented inside the BJP that a section of the state leaders will openly slam the General Secretary (Organisation). A post which is considered the bridge between the RSS and the BJP. A time came when a series of Bengal BJP leaders openly started taking on Amitava Chakraborty who is the organisational secretary of the Bengal BJP.

A senior BJP leader of the Bengal unit explained that there are communication gaps between the RSS and the BJP in the state. He also mentioned that BL Santhosh, the national general secretary (organisation) , has visited Bengal many times in this period to sort things out. Significantly, the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat himself visited Bengal and had a discussion with the top Sangh pracharaks to do away with differences. Here the role of Bansal will become crucial. 

Bansal has served as the organisational secretary in the state of Uttar Pradesh since 2014 and also has a strong ABVP background. It is also important to note that Bansal has spent some years of his life in Bengal.

A senior BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity, “ From north Bengal to the Matua belt the RSS has been doing significant work in Bengal. But after the 2021 assembly elections, the communication channels between the RSS and the BJP have become weaker.” 

Why an election strategist like Sunil Bansal was much needed in Bengal

The appointment of Sunil Bansal has many significant sales. He has a strong RSS background, is the man Friday of home minister Amit Shah and is also a sharp election strategist. The 52-year-old RSS man was born in Rajasthan. The BJP insiders confirmed that Amit Shah himself gave him the responsibility to strategise the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha poll in 2014.

After the 2021 Bengal assembly election defeat, the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bengal has been suffering from fighting, a lack of communication between the leadership, a deteriorating relationship with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the lack of electoral strategy to fight battles against the TMC. While Mamata Banerjee‘s party is now under the pressure from the central agencies regarding several alleged scams, this is the time the state BJP will need a strategist like Bansal who can strategize the plan of action to hit the streets against the ruling dispensation.

Meanwhile, Bansal's appointment in Bengal can also be seen as a strategic decision from the central leadership. Despite being a close lieutenant of Home Minister Amit Shah, he was not in the good books of UP CM Yogi Adityanath. Removing Bansal from UP affairs was reportedly a long pending demand of Adityanath. Therefore, by shifting him to Bengal, the BJP has successfully tackled the disenchantment of Yogi but also introduced a strategist to look after the political affairs of opposition-ruled states like Bengal, Odisha and Telangana.

What is the primary plan of the Bengal BJP?

According to the sources, in the meetings with JP Nadda and Amit Shah, the party has devised a basic plan of action. One part of this plan is regarding the continuous protest against Mamata Banerjee and her party which will be led by the Leader of Opposition in the Bengal assembly and BJP leader Subhendu Adhikari. Meanwhile, Sukanta Majumdar, the Bengal BJP chief will work closely with Sunil Bansal to revamp the organisation and course correct.