Centre drops 32 BJP leaders from its security cover list; party calls it ‘Routine Exercise’

Former Union Minister John Barla, former MP Dashrath Tirkey, BJP leader Shankudev Panda and former IPS officer Debashis Dhar are among the 32 people in the list whose security has been withdrawn.

Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency candidate Abhijit Das, who lost to Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee; former Diamond Harbour MLA Deepak Halder; Piya Saha, who was the BJP’s Bolpur candidate for the Lok Sabha elections; and Dhananjay Ghosh, the BJP candidate from Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency  are some of the names in the list.

“I am in Haridwar, I do not know anything in this regard. I have not received any message till now. This is a routine issue, every three months the Union Home Ministry issues a list in this regard. They have a protocol. Again they provide security. In the past 6.5 years I have seen this several times. Few days back such a list with the name of 20 individuals was published, again many were given security,” said Das.

Reacting to the development, BJP MP and state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya, while speaking with The Indian Express, said, “This is routine. The Centre decides who requires security and when, and that is how it is provided. The Home Ministry at that point must have felt that the leaders required security. There is nothing to politicise about this.”