Kolkata
Factional feud was seen in Bengal BJP as former Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Sovan Chatterjee and his close aide Baisakhi Banerjee remained absent from a road show in Kolkata that was organized for Sovan who has been given charge of looking after party’s organisation in Kolkata.
Senior Bengal leaders and Bengal observers were seen at his residence but despite several attempts both Sovan and Baisakhi remained absent from the road show.
According to party sources, Baisakhi on Sunday late evening had complained that the BJP officials didn’t invite her for which she will not participate in the programme.
“Though invitation was sent to all the leaders to take part in the rally, Baisakhi initially cited her personal problems for not attending the rally then claimed that she wasn’t invited. Sovan too didn’t attend as she refused to take part,” mentioned the sources.
Notably, after change of the scheduled route of the road show due to denial of police permission, Khidderpore area of Kolkata turned into battlefield as alleged Trinamool Congress workers from their rally pelted shoes and stones on BJP national general secretary and Bengal observer Kailash Vijayvargiya, BJP National Vice president Mukul Roy and BJP MP Arjun Singh who took part in the saffron camp’s road show.
Asked about Sovan’s absence from the road show, Vijayvargiya said that he wasn’t aware of the development.
However, political observers are of the mind that it would have been a good start for the former Mayor of KMC as he has been inactive for Bengal politics for almost three years.
It is pertinent to mention that Sovan who defected to the saffron camp in 2019 has not been seen active due to several attacks from his partymen. However, Sovan and Baisakhi were seen meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to Bengal.
BJP Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh said, “The ruling Trinamool Congress purposely tried to restrict the comeback of Sovan Chatterjee as they are afraid of the rising power of the saffron camp in West Bengal.”
The party insiders confirmed that the central leaders had asked the state counterpart to deal with this development with utmost importance.
Meanwhile, addressing a mass meeting, newly defected leader Suvendu Adhikari said that the ruling Trinamool Congress would have been wiped off if former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee didn’t help the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.
“Everybody knows that the BJP has always been supportive towards TMC. Now the TMC supremo is calling BJP outsiders,” slammed Suvendu calling TMC’s public outreach programme ‘Duare Sarkar’ (government at doorstep) ‘party at hell’.
In order to connect with the masses ahead of the polls, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said that the state government will help those farmers who want to take part in BJP led central government’s ‘Krishak Samman Niddhi’ by sending their names to the central government.
The chief minister also announced that the TMC will build a central university and will dedicate it to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his 125 birth anniversary.
The political observers mentioned that vote bank politics using the names of the saints are not new as on one side Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a rally on January 23 in Kolkata and Mamata Banerjee will build a central university and a monument just to woo the voters.