Differences in Bengal BJP after Dilip Ghosh attends CM’s Jagannath temple event

Kolkata: Internal differences within the West Bengal unit of the BJP have aggravated further as senior party leader and former state president Dilip Ghosh on Thursday, vehemently criticised his colleagues for attacking him after he attended the inauguration ceremony of the Lord Jagannath temple at Digha in East Midnapore district.

He attended the event with his newly-wedded wife Rinku Ghosh on Wednesday.

Although Ghosh did not name anyone directly from his conversation, it was clear that his target was the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, who was the principal organiser and coordinator of a religious rally of “Sanatani” Hindus at Contai, also in East Midnapore district on Wednesday. The timing of this rally coincided with the inauguration ceremony of the Lord Jagannath temple at Digha.

Ghosh bypassed the religious rally at Contai and preferred to attend the temple inauguration despite the distance between the two venues being barely 35 kilometres. Besides attending the inauguration ceremony of the temple, reportedly modelled after the iconic Shree Jagannath Temple at Puri in Odisha, and offering Puja there, Ghosh and his wife were also seen interacting cordially with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee within the temple premises. Photographs of that interaction have already flooded social media.

On Thursday morning, while speaking to the media persons, Ghosh indirectly attacked Adhikari without naming him over the latter’s previous stints with Trinamool Congress before he joined the BJP.

“Those who are resorting to tall talk now once nurtured their political career under the patronage of Mamata Banerjee. Those who are now surviving on the leftovers of the BJP once survived on the leftovers of Trinamool Congress. Those surviving on leftovers are now trying to certify me,” Ghosh said on Thursday morning.

A two-time Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member and also the former West Bengal Transport Minister, Adhikari, joined the Trinamool Congress before the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections. In those polls, Adhikari was elected from the Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore, defeating the erstwhile Trinamool Congress candidate and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

While attacking Adhikari indirectly, Ghosh also recollected the good relationship between Mamata Banerjee and the former Indian Prime Minister Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee when Trinamool Congress was part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

“Vajpayee-ji, as the prime minister, once went to the residence of Mamata Banerjee and touched the feet of her mother. Mamata Banerjee was with us then. There is no reason to consider her as our enemy now,” Ghosh said.

Ghosh’s attack comes despite Adhikari, on Wednesday, refraining from commenting on the situation despite being repeatedly asked by media persons.

“I will not give any reaction to this issue. Today I will speak only about the Hindu religion. As the Leader of Opposition, I will not comment or give any reaction to any action by or statement from anybody else other than the Chief Minister,” Adhikari said on Wednesday.

IANS