Dilip Ghosh had wanted to join Trinamool: MP Saugata Roy

KOLKATA/DURGAPUR: Senior Trinamool MP Saugata Roy on Thursday claimed that BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh, who has been training guns against the party without a break, had evinced interest in joining TMC ahead of the 2021 Bengal assembly elections.
"There is an allegation that Ghosh had approached Trinamool to join the party. He was in touch with TMC even after the elections, when he was removed from the Bengal BJP president post," Roy said.
Ghosh laughed away Roy's claim. "People of Bengal know me. The senior Trinamool MP is insecure within his own party. He might not get a ticket in the coming Lok Sabha polls. He is thus making such wild claims to stay afloat and fit into the new Trinamool dispensation," Ghosh said. State BJP seniors saw it as a Trinamool tactic to create confusion among the BJP ranks.
Roy's claim, however, matched with the comments of Trinamool leaders Firhad Hakim and Kunal Ghosh two months ago when BJP assigned Dilip Ghosh with organisational responsibilities outside Bengal. "I don't want to comment on other party affairs. I worked with Ghosh in the assembly for quite some time. I feel his party didn't do justice to him," Hakim had said. When asked if Trinamool was willing to take Ghosh in case he opted to join Trinamool, Hakim had said: "How can I comment on that. It is up to the party to decide. What I have said is my personal opinion."
The BJP national vice-president was in his element at Durgapur on Thursday. Ghosh paid back Roy in the same coin days after the Trinamool MP at a Kamarhati rally had threatened to "skin the opposition" going overboard on the school jobs scam expose. "Look at the language of a 70-year old professor. He threatens the opposition when he can't even walk properly. One should beat him with shoes," the BJP leader said.
Roy chose against responding to Ghosh's comment. "I do not feel like reacting to Dilip Ghosh. He is a Class VIII-pass politician, can't even speak English. He is a fitter mechanic," the MP said.