Medinipur/Kolkata: Dilip Ghosh might have lost this round against the Trinamool Congress (TMC), but he continues to remain a central figure among Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in West Bengal.
“If Dilip da (elder brother) would have stood for polls in Medinipur, he would have won,” exclaimed a party worker who has been an ardent supporter of the former state BJP chief since 2015. With Ghosh having contested the Lok Sabha polls from Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, the BJP office in Medinipur is missing the usual buzz, adds the worker.
“You know one person I would have been happy for if he won from the BJP? Dilip Ghosh,” a senior TMC MP had told ThePrint at CM Mamata Banerjee’s residence after the declaration of results of the Lok Sabha elections.
Amid slogans of “Dilip da zindabad” and “humara neta kaisa ho, Dilip Ghosh jaisa ho”, the former MP returned Monday to Medinipur, which he represented in the 17th Lok Sabha.
Sitting with cadres on the terrace of the district party office, Ghosh enquired about his former ‘foot soldiers’ and had a heart-to-heart with them while sipping tea. Visibly emotional karyakartas surrounded their leader, asking about his health and urging him to return “home”.
“You are our leader, unless you return, the karyakartas will not fight against the TMC here wholeheartedly. See the narrow margin with which they won,” said one BJP worker during the informal meeting.
In Medinipur, BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate Agnimitra Paul lost to June Maliah of the TMC by a margin of more than 27,000 votes. Paul, while giving credit to Ghosh for building the party’s organisation in Medinipur, dismissed claims that there was “sabotage” by leaders close to him in the district.
“Dilip da served as MLA since 2016, and after working for three years, in 2019 he became an MP with 6.85 lakh votes. I was in Medinipur for only two months. The organisation was completely built by Dilip da and I worked within that and received 6.75 lakh votes. So it isn’t right to say that the people of Medinipur didn’t support the BJP,” she told ThePrint.
Paul added that the minority vote played a massive role in the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections in Medinipur. “So it isn’t right to say there was any sabotage or Dilip da’s supporters didn’t work. The team fought but there were shortcomings and if that wasn’t the case, we would have won.”
Under Dilip Ghosh’s leadership, the BJP won 18 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal for the first time, in 2019. This time, its tally dropped to 12 while TMC regained lost ground — winning 29 seats, seven more than last time.
Asked about the setback, Dilip Ghosh told ThePrint, “Overall, there was a negative mood in the country against the BJP, not just in West Bengal. At one point, even the Prime Minister was trailing in Varanasi. His margin (of victory) fell this (general) election. I was sent to Bardhaman-Durgapur a few weeks before the elections and couldn’t win the seat.”
Ghosh lost to former cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad of the TMC by a margin of 1.37 lakh votes. Azad was part of the Indian squad that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup.
For Ghosh, this marked his first poll defeat. The 59-year-old was first elected to the West Bengal Assembly in 2016 after defeating 10-time Congress MLA Gyan Singh Sohanpal in Kharagpur Sadar seat. A former RSS pracharak, Ghosh was in-charge of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Andaman and Nicobar from 1999-2007. He also worked briefly as an assistant to former RSS sarsanghachalak K.S. Sudarshan.
On why the BJP lost Bardhaman-Durgapur which it won in 2019, Ghosh said, “When I went to the constituency, I was shocked to see the missing organisation on ground.
“I realised, if I begin to first strengthen the organisational structure here, I will have no time to campaign. So, I directly went into campaign mode with limited time in hand. The rural areas are vast under this constituency. The district president was seeing these villages for the first time with me and learning their names. This was the situation.”
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‘BJP MP didn’t show up for 5 years’
Now, Ghosh plans to return to Bardhaman-Durgapur to continue his efforts to expand the BJP’s footprint in the constituency.
“When I was campaigning, people kept asking me — will we get to see you for the next five years? Because they had not seen their previous MP in the five years since the (2019) elections,” he said.
Held by S.S. Ahluwalia of the BJP, the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat was wrested by the TMC this general election. Ahluwalia was instead fielded from Asansol where he lost to TMC leader and actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha by more than 59,000 votes.
ThePrint reached S.S. Ahluwalia for comment via text and calls, but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Ghosh, meanwhile, affirmed that he had been gearing up to contest the polls from Medinipur. “In 2019, the only place (assembly segment) I was trailing from was Kharagpur gramin (rural). I was concentrating in that area for 2024, to ensure a strong lead for a comfortable victory margin. I was attached to my constituency; none can claim otherwise.”
He added, “As an MP I would attest files after files for those seeking travel compensation, medical intervention. This would give me a chance to interact with a lot of people who would approach me, a Left-wing trade union leader in Kharagpur told me, dada, vote toh apnake debo (we will vote for you) but at that time the candidates weren’t declared.”
Explaining further, he said that since the BJP declared its candidates for the last phase of the polls first, candidates were already out on the ground and heading towards a ‘burnout’. He added that the final decision in terms of ticket distribution rests with the party.
Asked about how the duration of the campaigning period affects candidates, political analyst Udayan Bandyopadhyay told ThePrint, “It’s quite difficult to utter the same thing repeatedly for two months. If you have collective leadership or multiple issues at your disposal, you can sail through. Otherwise things would be monotonous and people lose interest in your campaign style. One must renew her/his vocabulary and rhetoric at regular intervals, else the poll momentum is lost.”
A state BJP leader who did not want to be named said that while credit goes to Dilip Ghosh for BJP’s impressive electoral showing in West Bengal up until 2021, it doesn’t mean Sukanta Majumdar — who succeeded Ghosh as state BJP president — failed to perform.
“When Dilip Ghosh was appointed state president, the BJP had very little share in state politics. That changed in 2019. In 2021, BJP became the principal opposition in the state. But Sukanta Majumdar had a greater challenge, unlike Dilip Ghosh, the stakes for Majumdar were way higher than what Ghosh faced in 2019. So, it is wrong to compare the two and say Majumdar failed. The political circumstances must be factored in.”
In 2021, after he was replaced by Majumdar as state BJP president, Ghosh was appointed national vice president of the party — a post he held until last year. At present, he holds no official position within the party organisation and is in Kolkata awaiting marching orders.
With at least 10 assembly seats in the state now vacant due to resignation of sitting MLAs to contest Lok Sabha polls, ThePrint asked Ghosh if he would consider fighting an assembly bypoll, to which he replied: “It’s the party that will decide. I will continue to work for the people with or without a post.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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