Dilip Ghosh skips PM Modi rally, says party did not want him to attend

Kolkata, July 18 (IANS) BJP’s former national vice-president and the party’s ex-state chief in West Bengal, Dilip Ghosh, on Friday morning, left for New Delhi just hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be addressing a crucial political rally at the industrial township of Durgapur in West Burdwan district later in the day.

Before leaving for Delhi, Ghosh also made an explosive statement to the media, claiming that he had decided not to attend the Prime Minister’s rally at the last moment, as the party’s leadership did not want him to attend.

"Initially, I said I would attend the rally, as common party workers had demanded. But the party did not invite me to be there. Probably the party leadership does not want me to be there. Maybe my presence will be a cause of inconvenience for the leadership. So I am not attending the Prime Minister’s rally,” Ghosh said in the morning at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata before leaving for Delhi.

However, he made a loaded statement when asked why he was going specifically to Delhi on this crucial day. “I am going to Delhi with an assignment for the party,” Ghosh said without elaborating further.

Dilip Ghosh also remained conspicuous by his absence at an earlier rally by PM Modi at Alipurduar district in May and the one by the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, in Kolkata in June.

Ghosh, also a former Lok Sabha member of the BJP, attracted the ire of the party's state leadership after he attended the inauguration ceremony of Lord Jagannath Temple at Digha in East Midnapore district along with his newly-wedded wife in May this year, much to the disliking of the party leadership.

After videos of his cordial interaction with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee within the temple premises went viral, several BJP supporters criticised Ghosh over the development on social media, which posed embarrassment for the state party leadership.

--IANS

src/dpb