The BJP will put up a ‘big name’ against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Bhabanipur assembly bypoll which will be held on September 30, the saffron party’s state chief Dilip Ghosh told News18 on Saturday, indicating that they will not leave any stone unturned in their endevour to challenge the Trinamool chief.
Banejee needs to win the Bhabanipur bypoll to remain the chief minister. The win will allow her a chance to become a member of the state legislative assembly. Banerjee had moved out of her traditional seat in Kolkata’s Bhabanipur to fight in Nandigram during the Assembly polls earlier this year but lost to his former close aide Suvendu Adhikari who contested on a BJP ticket.
Adhikari is now the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly. After the election results, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, the TMC MLA from Bhabanipur constituency, vacated the seat to allow Banerjee to contest from there. Banerjee had won from Bhabanipur twice since 2011.
“It was not the ECI’s Job to make someone CM by holding election for one person,” Ghosh charged.
Excerpts from the interview:
The ECI has announced holding a bypoll in the Bhabanipur from where CM Mamata Banerjee will contest. Are you happy with this decision?
We are not able to understand the foundation of this decision by ECI. West Bengal had two assembly constituencies pending where polls could not happen due to death of the candidates. Then there are five more seats which have to go to bypolls due to resignations of MLAs or death. But only Bhabanipur seat has been combined by the EC with the two earlier seats for bypolls now because the Chief Minister has to contest from Bhabanipur. So only three by-polls have been announced out of seven. What is the foundation of this decision, we cannot understand.
If the atmosphere in Bengal is conducive for by-polls, it should be everywhere on all the seven seats. Two other Ministers in the government who are not MLAs will have to resign. What is their fault? And what is the fault of the people in seats where by-polls are not being held as they will not be able to select their representatives. If the atmosphere is not conducive, then there should be no by-polls anywhere. Can there be an election for one person? It is not the ECI’s job to make someone Chief Minister. We will discuss this with legal experts.
Will you put up a big name against the CM in Bhabanipur?
Well, the bypoll is to happen and we will fight it with all our might. We will do all the preparations. We will put up a big and prominent name against the Chief Minister as she is also a big name. But the fact is that the Chief Minister has lost in Nandigram earlier. Ladai Barbari ki hogi (It will be a tough fight). The party will take a decision soon.
TMC was alleging that the bypoll will not be held in Bhabanipur on time as Mamata will not be able to continue as CM
She is jumping into a by-election and trying to influence and put pressure. Her Chief Secretary wrote to the ECI that a constitutional crisis will emerge. How can a constitutional crisis emerge? One of our Chief Ministers (in Uttarakhand) had resigned. Your party (TMC) is in power and in majority. Mamata Banerjee had lost and still forcibly became CM — why did she become the CM? The real crisis is actually in the TMC — that who after Mamata? The issue for TMC is only power and the chair.
Four of your MLAs have gone to the TMC. Is there a problem inside the BJP in West Bengal?
The people who have gone to the TMC were not for long with the BJP. Some people are also going due to fear of the TMC. There are 4-5 people who were not able to walk with the party. If someone wants to go away, till when can we stop them? If a leader like Mukul Roy can go away, whom do you trust? One person came just before the election to us and we gave him a ticket and he won but he was always close to Mukul Roy and never came to our party programmes. Another person was a councilor who could also not gel with the party. The person who has switched over today also had a lot of objections when we gave him a ticket but he won.
TMC leaders claim 10-12 MLAs of the BJP are ready to jump ship?
No, I don’t think there are 10-12 people as the TMC claims. Yes, four MLAs have gone including Mukul Roy.
Some in your party say CM should have resigned on moral grounds after the HC verdict on post-poll violence
No concept of morality exists in the TMC or for the CM. We are hoping for CBI to bring justice to people and it seems the probe is heading in the right direction. The ED is also starting to look at many other scams in West Bengal.
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