The post Assembly poll wrangling in the Bengal unit of the BJP on Wednesday saw the expulsion of a senior party leader after he openly lambasted Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari for his “questionable conducts.”
Surajit Saha the Howrah district president of the party was “summarily” expelled from the party by State vice president Pratap Banerjee for attacking Adhikari apparently to send a strong signal to other dissenting voices.
The lightning quick decision came from the State unit after Saha on Wednesday morning went on record questioning Adhikari’s credentials saying “he (Adhikari) left the Trinamool Congress to join the BJP a few months before the elections … It was he was openly seen in the television accepting money in the Narada payoff case … no BJP leader or worker was seen doing so … so Suvendu Adhikari should not teach us how to be devout BJP men.”
Adhikari had earlier criticized the Howrah district leaders (including Saha) for working in favour of the Trinamool Congress leading to the party’s defeat in the Assembly elections.
Saha also lambasted the senior leader for putting Trinamool Congress turncoats on key positions before the coming Howrah Municipal Corporation elections. “Suvendu Adhikari is making a B team of the TMC within the BJP by putting Trinamool turncoats on key positions … I as the president of the Howrah unit refuse to work with this B team of the TMC.”
When asked to comment on the issue BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh said “leaders may have issues … we are a democratic party and such issues should be discussed inside the party and in a proper forum … speaking things out in public is not allowed by the BJP.”
Saha is known for his proximity to two very senior leaders in the party and his expulsion is seen as a message to these leaders who have been consistently challenging the party line vis a vis electoral politics in
Bengal.
Apart from Saha senior leader and former Tripura Governor Tathagato Roy too have been attacking the Bengal leaders including Dilip Ghosh and party’s then observer for Bengal Kailash Vijaybargiya and Arvind Menon.
Roy has been attacking Ghosh for speaking the languages used by anti-social elements. Vijabargiya and Menon came under his line of attack for spoiling the party’s prospects in Bengal “by blindly inducting leaders from TMC.”