Team News Riveting
Kolkata, May 12
At a time when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) needed to consolidate its position at the ground level following its humiliating defeat at the hands of ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal, it had asked its two newly elected legislators to resign.
Within 10 days of electing to the Bengal assembly, BJP MLA from Dinhata in Cooch Behar Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar, newly elected MLA from Santipur today resigned. Both are the party’s Member of Parliament. Instead of retaining their assembly seats, BJP saw their importance in Parliament.
Political observers in Bengal felt that the party’s decision to quit the assembly seats was not meaningful. For, the Bengal election results had underlined that the BJP needed to consolidate its base in small pockets and even boost the morale of workers who had to face furious and fatal attacks from TMC supporters after the election results were announced.
“The orbit of a parliamentarian is very big as compared to a legislator and hence, an MLA can be more accessible to party workers than an MP,” one of the observers said. In the aftermath of the Bengal election and subsequent violence, the saffron supporters were eyeing mentors from their own locality that could propel them back to work for BJP.
The BJP losing two Parliamentary seats was not so significant given the majority it enjoyed in the Lok Sabha. But giving away two seats to bring down its tally from 77 to 75 was never a good decision, the observers said, adding that retaining the two seats in the by-elections when TMC had returned to power would be a daunting task. The BJP needed to fight the TMC inside and outside the Assembly with full strength.
