Outgoing chief minister Raghubar Das on Wednesday said that he would serve the BJP as an ordinary party worker.
Das has been facing attacks within the party and from outside that his “arrogance” and “overconfidence” led to the humiliating ouster of the BJP from power.
He said that his rivals had built a false narrative around his conduct. “Some Jaichands (traitors) are behind the defeat of the party,” Das said during a chat with media personnel and party workers on the sidelines of his visit to the BJP office at Harmu here to pay tribute to Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the former Prime Minister’s birth anniversary.
“False allegations were levelled against me that I remained out of touch with party workers and people. I regularly held meetings at the party office to meet party workers. I always remained available for the people. I was not arrogant and I never misbehaved,” Das stressed.
He did not explain who he has referring to as traitors. He said that a malicious campaign was run against him about his origins. “They call me a resident of Chhattisgarh whereas the fact is that Jharkhand is my birthplace. When rivals did not find anything against me they started targeting my family members and they (family members) were victimised by false allegations,” Das said.
He said that neither he nor his family members accumulated properties, and that he always maintained probity in personal and political life.
“I will work as an ordinary party worker — it is a privilege that nobody can snatch. For the BJP power is a medium to serve the people and not the ultimate goal, and this is what Vajpayee taught all of us. I will go to the people and I will keep fighting against corruption and middlemen. I will keep raising issues of public interest,” said Das.
On Tuesday, he had held a meeting with party workers in Jamshedpur to review the reasons behind his defeat. The meeting was stormy as a good number of party workers said that Das should have been careful about the conduct of his family members who misused his (Das’s) position, BJP sources said.
