By Shri Tathagata Roy
A lot of BJP's well-wishers, both in West Bengal and elsewhere, have wondered on this and regretted this decision of our central leadership. I myself sat in the West Bengal State Election Committee meeting, agreed on Ashim Ghosh's name and thereafter left for the North-east on some professional assignments. On my way back, somewhere near Guwahati airport, I received this bombshell, which left me depressed right through till Wednesday afternoon. On Wednesday afternoon I met our President Rahul Sinha and our co-Central Observer Siddharth Nath Singh and had long interactions with them.
Siddharth made it clear that there was no question of holding out an olive branch to Trinamool. In fact (though Siddharth himself didn't say it) Mamata has her tongue hanging out so far for Muslim votes (as evidenced by her stipends to Imams and Muezzins, Muslim reservation, her offering Namaz and wearing Hijab, and saying Inshallah, etc.) that even an olive FOREST, not to speak of a branch, could not draw her into a PRE-POLL alliance with BJP. What she will do POST-POLL will depend ENTIRELY on numbers in the new Lok Sabha, and not one bit on who held out how many olive branches before polls. If she does badly in the Panchayat polls, she might again ally with the Congress PRE-POLL, but never with BJP. One must realize that she is a COMPLETELY self-centred person and doesn't give a damn about niceties or returning favours.
Then why did the central leadership ask us to withdraw? The principal reason, as Siddharth explained, is that BJP is seeking the Prime minister's resignation and polls in November, and running for elections now would be inconsistent with such a stand. A secondary but important reason is the resources position. West Bengal BJP is cash-starved, and has important commitments. The central BJP also is not exactly swimming in money -- unlike the Congress or even the CPI(M) and Trinamool. In such circumstances running for a Lok Sabha that may not last even six months may be pointless.
Therefore, while fully realizing that our media friends will put a pro-Trinamool spin to this and it may demoralize our party cadres, our central leaders took this stand.
We in the state party will later decide what to tell our supporters as to who to vote for. We may tell them to support an independent, follow their consciences, or not to vote at all.
I still won't say this gets me completely out of my depression. But enough to get up and apply myself to party work with renewed vigour.
A lot of BJP's well-wishers, both in West Bengal and elsewhere, have wondered on this and regretted this decision of our central leadership. I myself sat in the West Bengal State Election Committee meeting, agreed on Ashim Ghosh's name and thereafter left for the North-east on some professional assignments. On my way back, somewhere near Guwahati airport, I received this bombshell, which left me depressed right through till Wednesday afternoon. On Wednesday afternoon I met our President Rahul Sinha and our co-Central Observer Siddharth Nath Singh and had long interactions with them.
Siddharth made it clear that there was no question of holding out an olive branch to Trinamool. In fact (though Siddharth himself didn't say it) Mamata has her tongue hanging out so far for Muslim votes (as evidenced by her stipends to Imams and Muezzins, Muslim reservation, her offering Namaz and wearing Hijab, and saying Inshallah, etc.) that even an olive FOREST, not to speak of a branch, could not draw her into a PRE-POLL alliance with BJP. What she will do POST-POLL will depend ENTIRELY on numbers in the new Lok Sabha, and not one bit on who held out how many olive branches before polls. If she does badly in the Panchayat polls, she might again ally with the Congress PRE-POLL, but never with BJP. One must realize that she is a COMPLETELY self-centred person and doesn't give a damn about niceties or returning favours.
Then why did the central leadership ask us to withdraw? The principal reason, as Siddharth explained, is that BJP is seeking the Prime minister's resignation and polls in November, and running for elections now would be inconsistent with such a stand. A secondary but important reason is the resources position. West Bengal BJP is cash-starved, and has important commitments. The central BJP also is not exactly swimming in money -- unlike the Congress or even the CPI(M) and Trinamool. In such circumstances running for a Lok Sabha that may not last even six months may be pointless.
Therefore, while fully realizing that our media friends will put a pro-Trinamool spin to this and it may demoralize our party cadres, our central leaders took this stand.
We in the state party will later decide what to tell our supporters as to who to vote for. We may tell them to support an independent, follow their consciences, or not to vote at all.
I still won't say this gets me completely out of my depression. But enough to get up and apply myself to party work with renewed vigour.
This is very Sad as well as Bad decision, for west bengal BJP. People know that BJP candidate will not win but they wanted to see the percentage(%) of vote to favor of BJP. Sir,(Tathagata Roy), it should go with candidate.. ground level people will be upset on this type of decision.. Please don't repeat.. this type of decision..
ReplyDeleteThanks for your advice.
ReplyDelete