Speaking to mediapersons on Wednesday evening, Adhikari, who joined the BJP in 2020, said his role was to “campaign for the party” and not to “interfere in organisational matters”. He was referring to senior leaders who blamed the party’s loss of ground in the Lok Sabha polls on Adhikari.

Significantly, the BJP’s seat tally has gone down to 12 of West Bengal’s 42 parliamentary seats, a decline from 18 in 2019.

“When things go right and results are in our party’s favour, they take credit. But when electoral performance is not up to the mark, then they blame me,” he said, adding that as a party leader, he “did not talk about the party’s internal matters before the public”.

BJP’s loss of ground has deepened factionalism in the state’s BJP unit, with leaders like Dilip Ghosh, Saumitra Khan and Jagannath Sarkar blaming Adhikari for the electoral setback. In his statements soon after the loss last week, Ghosh, ex-chief of the Bengal BJP unit, hinted that Adhikari had a say in candidate selection for south Bengal seats and held him responsible for moving him from Medinipur to Bardhaman-Durgapur. The party lost both the seats to the TMC. “Keep one thing in mind: even one old karyakarta of the party should not be neglected. If necessary, let ten new karyakartas be separated. Because the old workers are the guarantee of our victory. Trusting new karyakartas too quickly is not advisable – Atal Bihari Vajpayee,” Ghosh wrote on X on June 6.

Reacting to the criticism, Adhikari said on Wednesday: “I don’t have any intention of interfering in organisational decisions in the future. I exercise caution while speaking about the party outside. For that, many criticise my style of function. Sometimes, they say bad things about me and make social media posts,” he said.