BJP grew when I was Bengal chief, going down after touts joined: Dilip amid protest over Digha visit
Digha/ Kolaghat (WB), May 1 (PTI): Faced with protests from a section of BJP workers for visiting the Jagannath temple in Digha, senior leader Dilip Ghosh on Thursday said it was during his tenure as the state president that the party gained in strength in West Bengal and has been on a downward slide ever since "touts" have joined it.
Ghosh, along with his newly-married wife Rinku Majumdar, visited the temple, built by the TMC government, on Wednesday and met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, triggering speculations that he may jump ship ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.
Even as he rejected the speculations, a section of BJP workers protested against him when he made a brief stopover at Kolaghat while returning to Kolkata from Digha.
Engaged in a war of words with the protestors, Ghosh said, "The BJP grew to its present stature in West Bengal when I was the state president. Over 250 BJP workers gave their lives to take the party to its present position. People trusted us, but that trust is steadily going down. Ever since touts have joined the party, it is on the downside."
"If you want to fight your enemies, then fight the good fight, don't do drama. I am not here to switch parties, but to change the politics of the state," he told the protesting party supporters.
Ghosh, who became the state BJP president in 2015, was removed from the post after the 2021 assembly elections.
Asked about the decision to visit the temple, he told reporters at the Digha sea beach in the morning, "Our party did not ask us to skip the invitation. I have been invited, and that is the reason I have come here. I have got the guts to do so."
"Why do lakhs of people go to the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the Kashi Viswanath temple in Varanasi? Even Mamata Banerjee had asked her party leaders not to go to Kumbh Mela, but there were many who went. Have they committed any crime? Do you know who built the Kalighat and Dakshineswar temples? It is not important who built the temple, people go because god is worshipped there," he added.
Asked about the speculations of joining the TMC, Ghosh shot back, "Why should I?"
"I am not having a bad time. I have not changed in the last 10 years, I have not changed my party like many others who switch sides whenever there is an election. Dilip Ghosh does not need to change sides," he said.
Ghosh's visit to the temple and subsequent meeting with Banerjee, a part of which was live-streamed on the CM's Facebook page, raised several eyebrows, with BJP leaders not hiding their anguish.
Sharing a photo of the meeting between Ghosh and Banerjee, senior BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta said in a post on X, "The outrage among grassroots BJP Bengal workers at this apparent betrayal by a former state president is too deafening for the national leadership to ignore."
On the criticisms, the former Kharagpur MP, who lost the last Lok Sabha elections against TMC's Kirti Azad in the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, said, "People keep on talking about Dilip Ghosh. Even if they talk negatively, that works as an advertisement for me."
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said the party did not endorse his visit.
"It's Dilip Ghosh's personal choice. But the party doesn't endorse the visit. Many of our MLAs were invited, but nobody visited due to the atrocities against Hindus in various places of the state," he said.
Asked about the visit, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said, "I don't want to talk about him."
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
