Why BJP vice president Mukul Roy’s ‘ghar wapsi’ is a cause of concern for the saffron party

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 11 

“An election setback is of concern,” BJP’s Bengal MP Swapan Dasgupta on Friday tweeted while party vice president Mukul Roy was in the process of his ‘ghar wapsi’ into the TMC.

“An election setback is of concern. The task of Bengal BJP is to draw the lessons and move ahead. These steps are underway and will become evident. There’s no cause for new and old karyakartas to be dispirited and go into a shell. BJP will build on the 2.2 crore votes and enlarge its reach,” Dasgupta said in what otherwise appeared to have no connection to the political development of the day in Bengal.

However, much was read into it amid reports of “dissent, discontent and desertions” in the party’s state unit following the electoral loss to the TMC.

While the leadership has dismissed as “inconsequential” Roy’s ‘ghar wapsi’, also calling him an “opportunist” who passed on “internal information of BJP to TMC”, there are concerns in the party which also draws significant strength from the play of perceptions.

Sources agree this is not exactly how the party leadership would have wanted the Mukul Roy episode to end.

Suvendu Adhikari, who met the central leadership on Wednesday, had apprised it of the ongoing happenings in the state.

This is also almost the first instance when a leader of Roy’s designation (vice president) has walked out of the BJP under Modi-Shah.

“He was someone who was suitably accommodated in the organisation,” party leaders say regarding Roy who joined the BJP with much fanfare and returned to TMC along with his son Subhrangshu Roy with the same hullabaloo.

While Roy was said to be upset over being denied the leader of opposition post in the Assembly and the increasing clout of Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram in the recent polls, his return may have just opened doors to other former TMC leaders, observers say.