Kolkata, Feb 8 () BJP’s former West Bengal President Tathagata Roy on Wednesday hit out at his own party’s state unit, claiming that the activities of the party’s state leaders are now restricted to only issuing statements.
“Currently the entire state is plunged in corruption. Almost the entire state Education Department including the former Education Minister is behind the bars. The central funds for essential projects are being diverted for organising festivals. The state government employees are being denied their long overdue dearness allowance arrears. However, as the principal opposition party of the state, the BJP is restricting its activities just to issuing statements from time to time,” Roy, who is also a former Governor of Meghalaya, said.
He also noted that talks of a clandestine pact between the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress is going on in the state. “This means that there is a secret pact, whereby the BJP will give a walkover to Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and in return, the Trinamool Congress will not let the opposition get united. It is high time that the BJP should disabuse people through its action,” he said.
However, he was all praises for Leader of Opposition in Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari. “Suvendu Adhikari seems to be the only hope for the state BJP in this moment of crisis. He not only defeated the Chief Minister from Nandigram in the 2021 Assembly elections, but is also moving around throughout the state. When those who joined the BJP out of greed for money and women accepted defeat and left the scene on the counting day by 12 noon, Adhikari did not escape from the counting station till the end,” Roy said.
However, none of the senior BJP leaders agreed to give any counter-comment to his observations on this count. This is not the first time that Tathagata Roy had been critical of the state leadership of his own party. After the defeat of the BJP in the 2021 Assembly polls, he said that the over-dependence on the turncoats coming to BJP from the Trinamool and Left parties ignoring the claims of the old guards was the major reason behind its rout.
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