Veteran CPM leader Asok Bhattacharya, a fivetime Siliguri MLA who was considered by many to be a “mentor” to CPM leader Shankar Ghosh who defected to BJP on Friday, seemed to break his silence on his protégé on Saturday, alluding to Ghosh as a “disgrace to politics” without taking names.

On Friday, a visibly upset Bhattacharya had refused to comment on Ghosh’s decision, calling it a “closed chapter”. A day later, the veteran leader from Siliguri came all guns blazing.

“People who surrender their ideology for selfinterest are a disgrace to politics,” Bhattacharya said.

“Politics is a serious business and there is hardly any place for people who compromise on ideology and worst of all, surrender to corporate capitalism,” said Bhattacharya speaking to the media during his campaign at the Bidhan Market area in Siliguri.

Many considered Ghosh a promising leader of the CPM in his mid40s, but his decision to swing from the Left to Rightwing ideology seems to have rattled his former party colleagues.

Speculations are rife that Ghosh might be a serious contender for the BJP ticket from either Siliguri or DabgramFulbari constituency. Bhattacharya is the sitting MLA of Siliguri and Trinamul heavyweight and state tourism minister Gautam Deb the DabgramFulbari MLA.

“If Ghosh bags the BJP ticket he might take a chunk of CPM votes with him. In such a scenario, the Siliguri contest will be very competitive,” said an observer who, however, cautioned that the oldversusnew squabbling could not be ruled out.

Trinamul has fielded Omprakash Mishra from Siliguri, a known face in the political arena of Bengal.

Both Bhattacharya and Mishra have started their election campaign in full throttle.

Bhattacharya, who is also the incumbent mayor of Siliguri, however, sounded unperturbed on the possibility of Ghosh bagging the BJP ticket from the city.

“Any X, Y, Z can contest against me, we are not worried,” said Bhattacharya.

The CPM leader said that the party had long chalked out their Assembly poll plans and has been campaigning for the past one month.

“There are 33 wards in Siliguri and over 100 slum areas and I have already covered many of these areas,” said Bhattacharya.