With the appointment of Rahul Sinha as the president of the state unit of BJP, cracks in the beleaguered unit came to the fore with a section of the party raising the banner of revolt against the party leadership.

Sinha, the general secretary of the state unit, has replaced Satyabrata Mukherjee, who resigned on September 21 following instructions from the central leadership.

“It will bring no good to the party because Sinha is a tainted man and has strong leanings towards the CPM,” Sabyasachi Bagchi, senior vice-president of the state BJP, told The Indian Express.

Bagchi added: “We cannot fight the CPM with such a man at the helm. And appointment of someone when organisational elections were going on is illegal. We will take up the matter with the central leadership. We will also take the issue to the general members of the BJP.”

Sinha, on the other hand, said he would seek the support of all to run the party. “My first priority will be to take the party back to the path of agitations from which we have deviated,” said Sinha.

He added: “A lot of party workers have stopped working and confined themselves to their homes. We will have to bring them back and fight unitedly. I have sought co-operation from all —- all past presidents, all senior leaders. I believe we will be able to show some results in the coming Assembly by-elections to be held on November 7.”

But there are other senior leaders in the party who have come out in support of the new state president. “Sinha is young and hardworking and fits in the scheme of the party that has declared that people under 50 could only become presidents of the party. We have told him that he will get our support and guidance,” Tathagatha Roy, a former president of the state unit, told The Indian Express.

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