Made Mamata-as-PM remark sarcastically, says Dilip Ghosh

Speaking to reporters in Kolkata on Mamata’s birthday, Ghosh on Saturday said, “I extend my good wishes to her on her birthday. Because on her success, the fate of West Bengal is dependent. She needs to stay healthy, because if there is any chance of a Bengali prime minister or a prime minister from Bengal, she has a possibility.”

Asked whether a BJP leader from the state can become the PM, Ghosh had said, “That may be later, but she has the first chance. We narrowly missed Jyoti-babu (former CM and CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu) as the Prime Minister. His party did not allow it. In the list her name is (now) at number one. Pranab-babu became the President, so there is a need for a Bengali to become the PM.”

Taking a dig at the state BJP chief, Lok Sabha MP Kalyan Banerjee said, “It is good that he has finally realised the truth. We are happy. Mamata Banerjee is the right person to lead the country. She has all it takes to become the prime minister. Good that our opposition leaders have accepted it too.”

The BJP which was caught off guard by the statement said Ghosh’s comment was being blown out of proportion.

“I had spoken to him (Ghosh). He told me that he was extending birthday wishes. His comments has been blown out of proportion. He has today clarified about his statement. I think the matter ends here,” BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvergiya told PTI.

The Congress, however, said the statement was “sort of an admission” from the state BJP chief, who probably knew that the chances of the saffron party returning to power at the Centre after this year’s general election were “slim”.

“The statement reflects two things – a covert understanding between the BJP and the TMC, and that attempts to forge the federal fronts are mere ploys to divide the opposition,” senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Abdul Mannan said. Ghosh’s remark showed that he was certain that the BJP would not come back to power, he added.

Echoing similar sentiments, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leadership said the “tacit understanding between the TMC and the BJP is now out in the open”.

“We have been saying this for a long time that the TMC and the BJP are playing a fixed political match in the state. Now, the state BJP president himself has given a proof of it with his remarks,” CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said.

In his defence, Ghosh said his remark should not be taken “seriously”. “Anyone with a bit of political sense can very well say that Mamata Banerjee can never become the prime minister with the number of Lok Sabha seats she has,” he said.

(With PTI Inputs)