Former BJP national vice-president and ex-West Bengal state president, Dilip Ghosh, left for New Delhi on Friday morning—just hours ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s significant political address scheduled in Durgapur, West Burdwan district.
Addressing the media at Kolkata's Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport as he embarked for Delhi, Ghosh let out a political bombshell. He disclosed that while he had originally intended to go to the rally following pleas from party grassroots workers, he eventually changed his mind after feeling resistance from within party leadership.
"Earlier, I mentioned that I would join the rally, as ordinary party cadres had urged. But the party never extended an invitation to me. Perhaps the leadership of the party does not wish me to be there. Perhaps my presence will cause some kind of inconvenience to the leadership. So I am not going to the Prime Minister's rally," Ghosh informed the media.
When asked why he had made the quick trip to the national capital on such a politically sensitive day, Ghosh was evasive: "I am going to Delhi with an assignment for the party," he would only say, without elaborating.
His absence at the Durgapur rally wasn’t an isolated incident. Ghosh had also been missing from PM Modi’s earlier public event in Alipurduar in May, as well as Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s rally in Kolkata in June.
There have been months of tensions between Ghosh and the state BJP unit. In May, he invited disapproval from within his own ranks after participating in the inauguration of the Lord Jagannath Temple in Digha, East Midnapore, with his just-married bride. The event became controversial when videos emerged of Ghosh warmly interacting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the temple ceremony.
The video went viral, inviting criticism by a number of BJP loyalists on social media, and putting the state party unit in an embarrassment over the public perception of the exchange.
