A piquant situation has arisen in the state saffron camp. And to all intents and purposes, it is now a divided house. There are takers for both schools of thought. But there is none to translate them into action.

Veteran leaders like former state unit chief Tathagata Roy and habitual turncoat former Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh have not concealed their enthusiasm for the line of action Adhikari floated. But the fact remains the veteran-turncoat duo have neither a large enough following among the decision makers and rank and file to emerge as a ginger group.

Indeed it was formation of a ginger group which Adhikari had in mind when he voiced a proposal to wind up the minority wing of the party. In the backdrop of the electoral debacle, he wanted to set up this group lest his head rolled.

Given Adhikari's greater participation in the election campaign and his confident posturings, the national leadership of BJP including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home minister, Amit Shah had gathered the impression that a great electoral triumph was round the corner. It turned out to be almost an electoral rout making the head honchos of the saffron camp lose face.

No sign of approval has arrived from the BJP leadership. While the Adhikari camp is busy telling anyone who cares to listen that though the strategy of discarding the minorities has not been endorsed, it had not been rubbished yet.

But what the leaders and rank and file of the Adhikari camp have overlooked that unless Prime Minister Modi says so, no saffron camp leader worth his salt will dare to deviate from "Sabka saath, Sabka Vikas". A look at those trumpetting Adhikari’s words in the state unit are Roy and Singh, both of whom have little to look forward to in their political career.

Clearly the proponents of Adhikari's line are over the hill. And the leader of the Opposition (LoP) in West Bengal Legislative Assembly will put his political career on the line too unless he ceases to tow a party line opposed to one laid down by the Prime Minister himself

State unit chief Sukanta Majumdar has not bought this line which the LoP has started to espouse recently. Majumdar, a state minister of education and convenor of the North Eastern Council seeks to follow a different tack.

Majumdar, an academic with a doctoral degree under his belt is advocating social welfare schemes matching the ones introduced by Trinamool Congress state government. It is learnt from BJP sources that Lakshmir Bhander scheme is in Majumdar's crosshairs.

The debutant minister wants the union government of which his party is a major constituent to roll out a social welfare scheme which matches Lakshmir Bhander. Seeking to shoot it down, the Adhikari acolytes feel the TMC dispensation will block the ways of the benefits emanating from such a scheme.

Brushing such obstacles aside, a woman leader of the Majumdar camp said that there are many women who have no access to the Lakshmir Bhander scheme as they are BJP voters. It is this population group which should be targeted as the likely beneficiaries of the proposed scheme. Be that as it may, the dissension riven state BJP unit has little air in its sails. The not too large a crowd in Adhikari's recent stir against a hike in electricity tariff is a pointer to it.

The issue has sympathisers cutting across party lines. Yet the absence of a huge crowd was marked in Adhikari's recent agitation. The footfall would be similar if Majumdar calls for an agitation. The rank and file is at a clueless and is unlikely to take part in any agitation as long as state BJP remains a house divided among itself. (IPA Service)