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'I want to thank you...': Bengal BJP chief's message to people trying to save state from 'becoming Afghanistan’
Sukanta Majumdar also said that the BJP will continue to exist despite several of its leaders jumping ship to the ruling TMC.
Sukanta Majumdar, the newly-appointed chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) West Bengal unit, on Tuesday thanked people who, he said, “are trying to save the state from becoming Afghanistan.” Majumdar, whose predecessor Dilip Ghosh was made a national vice-president of the party in a reshuffle on Monday, also warned those leaving its Bengal unit for the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), saying that their defection won't finish the BJP.
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“I thank the people who are trying to save West Bengal from becoming Afghanistan. Our fight has to continue against the Taliban in West Bengal,” he said, according to news agency ANI. Taking a jibe at the TMC, the Balurghat parliamentarian said that it has become “a family-owned property in the garb of a political party,” referring to its supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and her nephew Abhishek. On the contrary, he said, it is only the BJP which gives important responsibilities to ordinary people.
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“If central forces are deployed for local body polls, then we will show them what we can do,” Majumdar also said.
In the bitterly contested assembly elections, which took place here across an unprecedented eight phases, from late March to late April, and in the shadow of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the TMC secured a third consecutive term by winning 213 seats. The BJP, meanwhile finished second, registering its best-ever haul with 77 seats. Banerjee, however, lost to her former protege, BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, from Nandigram. She now faces a by-election against Priyanka Tibrewal on September 30, from Bhabanipur.
In the wake of election results, several leaders jumped ship to Banerjee's camp. Two high-profile exits from the BJP are those of Mukul Roy and Babul Supriyo. While Roy's entry marks his return to the Trinamool, Supriyo is in his first stint.
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