BJP’s Dilip Ghosh asks ‘upset’ leader Tathagata Roy to leave party

He also claimed that there was “no chance” of Vijayvargiya returning to the state to oversee the operations of the Bengal BJP unit.

He took a fresh swipe at the leadership after the BJP was decimated in the October 30 bypolls to four Assembly seats.

“How long you will feel ashamed? Leave the party. Persons whom the party had given so much are causing the maximum damage to it. It is unfortunate,” Ghosh told newspersons as he headed to Delhi to attend the BJP central working committee meeting on Saturday.

However, Sukanto Majumder, who replaced Ghosh as the BJP state president after the Assembly poll debacle, steered clear of the war of words between the two state heavyweights saying the onus was on the party’s central leadership to handle the issue.

“He (Tathagata) does not hold any party post now. However, since he was part of the national executive committee earlier, we cannot comment on him. It is the central leadership which is authorised to take a decision on him,” Majumder told reporters in North Bengal.

Addressing media persons in Kolkata, the former governor said he need not respond to Ghosh’s statement.

“I don’t think he understood what I said. I need not comment on what he said,” Roy said.

Wading in on the issue, BJP MP from Hooghly, Locket Chatterjee said party leaders should refrain from speaking out in public. “If there are issues that need to be sorted out, our leaders, including seniors, should talk face to face. One should not make such public statements. This is not in keeping with the tradition of our party,” Chatterjee said.