New Delhi: In what may give fresh ammunition to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to target the ruling party at the Centre, the friction within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) West Bengal unit was out in the open on Friday with two factions entering into a brawl at Katwa in Paschim Bardhaman.
The two factions entered into a brawl in the presence of West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumder and his predecessor Dilip Ghosh.
Both Majumder and Ghosh while talking the media later attempted to downplay the incident and emphasized that the BJP rank and file was solidly behind the new state leadership.
Majumder blamed “Trinamool Congress agents” for the fracas.
“The TMC had sent agents to foment trouble at our meeting. We will identify the trouble makers,” Majumder said, PTI reported.
The fracas took place after two BJP leaders arrived at Daihat in Katwa for the party’s organisational meeting.
One group began to raise slogans against the leadership of Ghosh, who had been the West Bengal BJP chief till mid-September.
As the shouting continued, another faction soon tried to push away the protestors from the spot resulting in a scuffle.
The district level leaders later restored normalcy as both Ghosh and Majumder witnessed the chaos stoically.
The BJP, which suffered a drubbing in the state assembly polls held earlier this year, has of late witnessed a large number of state workers and regional leaders deserting the party with most of them, including former union minister Babul Supriyo, joining the ruling TMC.