BJP leader Dilip Ghosh attends Jagannath temple inauguration in Digha, meets Mamata

Kolkata, April 30 (IANS) Controversies surfaced in the West Bengal unit of the BJP as senior party leader and former state president, Dilip Ghosh, on Wednesday, attended the inauguration ceremony of the Lord Jagannath temple at Digha in East Midnapore district with his newly-wedded wife Rinku Ghosh.

Besides attending the inauguration ceremony of the temple, reportedly modelled after the iconic Shree Jagannath Temple at Puri in Odisha and offering Puja there, Ghosh and his wife were also seen interacting cordially with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee within the temple premises. Photographs of that interaction have already flooded social media.

The controversies have shrouded further since Ghosh visited the temple along with his wife on Wednesday, bypassing a religious rally of ‘Sanatani’ Hindus at Contai in the same district, which is barely 35 kilometres away from Digha.

The principal organiser and coordinator of the religious rally at Contai was the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.

Ghosh's actions have attracted scathing criticism from the two-time BJP Lok Sabha member from Bishnupur constituency in Bankura district of West Bengal, Saumitra Khan. In a message posted on the wall of his Facebook account, Khan accused Ghosh of being “BJP’s shame in West Bengal”.

“Dilip Babu, you are a perfect example of how a sacrificing soul can get transformed into a greedy soul,” Khan’s post read. He said that after expelling leaders like Babul Supriyo and Mukil Roy, who later joined Trinamool Congress, Ghosh was following their path only.

“I wonder how shameless such a self-proclaimed idealist person can be. You are a shame for the BJP in West Bengal,” Khan added.

Adhikari, himself, though, had refrained from making any comment on Ghosh’s actions. “I will not give any reaction to this issue. Today I will speak only about the Hindu religion. As the Leader of the Opposition, I will not comment or give any reaction to any action by or statement from anybody else other than the Chief Minister,” Adhikari said.

A visibly embarrassed state BJP president and the Union Minister of State, Sukanta Majumdar, tried to downplay the controversies. “I heard that Ghosh and his wife were personally invited to be present at the inauguration program, and hence they went. This is a matter of their personal choice,” Majumdar said.

The one-liner reaction from Ghosh was that there was nothing political about his visit to the temple of Lord Jagannath.

--IANS

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