BJP’s Bengal president resigns

The BJP’s West Bengal president Satyabrata Mukherjee resigned on Wednesday.
Mukherjee, a high-profile corporate lawyer of the Kolkata high court, was chemicals and fertilisers minister in the Vajpayee-led NDA government.

After faxing his resignation to the BJP leadership in Delhi, Mukherjee told the media he was quitting because of ill health. However, party insiders said Mukherjee was asked to take responsibility for the Bengal unit’s dismal performance in the Lok Sabha election and resign. They said tension between Mukherjee and the high command began even before the Lok Sabha election as the former was dead against the BJP’s decision to support the Gorkhaland issue and field Jaswant Singh as the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM)-backed candidate from Darjeeling.

The sources said Mukherjee’s relationship with the party’s other state unit members was also not cordial. “There were frequent complaints against him for not giving enough time as state president because of his commitments as a corporate lawyer,” a senior BJP leader from the state said.