Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said party legislators from West Bengal cannot travel without informing the state leadership. He was at a workshop organised for its 75 MLAs on Saturday, reports Hindustantimes.com. This immediately raised questions as no party in Bengal has imposed such a restriction on their leaders in recent history.
“Ghosh told us that no MLA is above the party. They are part of an organisation and hence cannot visit any place they like without informing the leadership,” a newly-elected MLA, who attended the workshop in Calcutta, said on condition of anonymity, reported Hindustantimes.com.
While Ghosh’s mandate was described by party leader’s as “an effort to enforce discipline” some of them felt it reflected Ghosh’s displeasure over Suvendu Adhikari’s recent visits to Delhi where he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and other top leaders.
During his last trip, Adhikari triggered a controversy by visiting the home of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. Though Mehta and Adhikari said they did not meet because the former was busy in a meeting, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has demanded the Solicitor General’s removal citing ethics.
The ruling party has said that since Adhikari is an accused in the Narada sting operation case and Mehta is representing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in court, they cannot meet. Two TMC MPs, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Mahua Moitra, will meet President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday to seek Mehta’s removal.
On earlier occasions, as well as on Friday when the controversy emerged, Ghosh said he was not aware of why Adhikari was in Delhi and who he met. Ghosh, in fact, stirred up the issue by asking why questions are not being raised about TMC leaders who were seen accepting bribes in the Narada sting videos recorded in 2014. Adhikari, who was a TMC MP, MLA and cabinet minister and joined the BJP in December last year, was among those seen in the videos.
Significantly, Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the Bengal assembly, was not present at the workshop when Ghosh passed his diktat on the movement of MLAs. Adhikari arrived after Ghosh left. Neither of them commented on the issue before the media.
In the recent polls, Adhikari defeated Mamata Banerjee and retained the Nandigram seat in the East Midnapore district. Of the 75 BJP legislators, 71 were elected for the first time. The party won 77 seats while the TMC bagged 213 of Bengal’s 294 seats. Two BJP MLAs later resigned to retain their Lok Sabha seats.
BJP national joint general secretary Shiv Prakash addressed the MLAs at the workshop. He asked them to focus on their performance as people’s representatives and not to get demoralised by the defeat in the elections in which the party targeted 200 seats.
