Cracks appearing in Bengal BJP

Even as West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh was re-elected unopposed for a second term, cracks have started to appear in the state unit of the saffron party. His macabre and controversial speeches have not gone down well with several senior leaders of the party who had no qualms in expressing their reservation against him.

The first among them is Union Minister Babul Supriyo. The singer-turned-politician was conspicuous by his absence from the party program on Thursday that was held to announce Ghosh’s re-election. He had irked Ghosh by castigating him on twitter for his controversial “ shot dead like dogs” remark with regard to protesters against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Although he congratulated Ghosh, the Minister made it clear that he will not budge from his earlier stand. “ What (Ghosh) said was his personal opinion and what I said (after it) was my personal opinion...There should always be a place for dissent in a political party,” said Supriyo.

Ghosh brushed aside Supriyo’s criticism saying, “One will say what he can understand. I said what I felt and I will stick to it.”

Remarks of another state BJP leader, vice-president Chandra Kumar Bose, grand nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, indicated that his reservation against the state party chief will remain in future.

Following Ghosh’s re-election, Bose said that the BJP leadership has “obviously not taken” his remarks (about anti-CAA protesters) “seriously.” He also said that he was hopeful that in future Ghosh would exercise some “restraint” during his public speeches as Bengal’s culture was different.

“I am sure that Dilip Ghosh will get used to the culture of Bengal and exercise restraint while making such comments in future,” said Bose.

Following the state BJP chief’s controversial remark against anti-CAA protesters, Bose, without directly naming him, criticised him in a series of tweets.

Bose stated that “no elected leader has the right to openly threaten people with dire consequences” and if any leader does so, then “strong action must be taken by the party & administration” against that leader.