Big jolt for Kol BJP unit as veteran Sunita Jhawar declines vice-prez post

Kolkata: The fight between the old guards and the new entrants took another ugly turn when BJP's veteran leader Sunita Jhawar, vice-president of the party's North Kolkata organising district unit, resigned from the post.

Citing personal ground, Jhawar, a five-time councillor from Kolkata's ward 42 till she was recently defeated, wrote to the party's North Kolkata district president Kalyan Chowbey, declining the vice-president's post minutes after the new committee was announced.

In the organising district committee in North Kolkata, Sajal Ghosh, councillor who recently joined BJP from Trinamool has been made the general secretary. Two party veterans, namely Meena Devi Purohit and Bijay Ojha have been dropped from the committee. Meena Devi was the Deputy Mayor when Subrata Mukherjee was the Mayor between 2000 and 2005. She has been a councillor since 1995.

The state BJP has so far announced 26 out of 42 organising district committees across the state. A senior leader of the state BJP said in many districts the party could not find presidents, vice-presidents and general secretaries. The state unit was supposed to announce all the organising district committees by January 10. BL Santosh, national general secretary (organisation) of the party has instructed the state unit to complete the formation of all the committees by January 31.

In Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram and East Midnapore, infighting between the old guards and the newcomers has come out in the open. In Jhargram, the old guards put the party office at Gopiballabpur under lock and key.