Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP) West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh has been re-elected for a second term to the post he held in the party. He was chosen uncontested as no one else had filed nomination for the post.
He is at the centre of a major controversy at the moment, for saying that those protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act and destroying public property, should be shot at like dogs. A few days back, Ghosh in a public rally in Nadia district said that those involved in damaging public property should be “shot” like they were in BJP-ruled states. He rued that the Mamata Banerjee government had not aimed a single bullet at the shaitans doing the same in Bengal.
His own party’s Union Minister for state Babul Supriyo condemned him and said it was “irresponsible” for him to say so. On Thursday, Supriyo said that he would like to congratulate Ghosh for being re-elected and “agree to disagree” on the issue.
The choice of Dilip Ghosh for the same post for another three years is significant politically. It is indicative of the fact that the BJP endorses his position despite all the controversial comments that he has made including the most recent one. It is clear that the BJP leadership would like such controversial statements to gain more attention from the media and people.
Two FIRs have since been filed against Ghosh by Trinamool Congress leaders in Nadia’s Ranaghat and in Habra of South 24 Parganas, for making inflammatory statements. The complainants have accused Ghosh of “criminal intimidation, promoting enmity and hatred between religious groups and intention to cause injury.” Ghosh stuck to his position and said FIRs were constantly being filed against him.
Dilip Ghosh also made headlines by stating that “Indian cows have humps, which the foreign cows don’t have and the hump in Indian cows contain an artery, called swarnanari (gold artery). When sunlight falls on it, gold is made. So the texture turns yellow or golden. This milk has preventive properties and a person can live on this kind of milk only. You don’t have to eat anything else. It is a complete food,” he had said in November last year.
Dilip Ghosh had joined the BJP from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 2014, and was appointed the party’s general secretary in West Bengal. In 2015, he was chosen the state president. He won the Assembly election from Kharagpur in 2016.
After the last panchayat elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state (in which BJP won 18 out of 22 seats), Ghosh is considered as the main driving force for the BJP in Bengal and for his organisational strength. He was elected MP from Midnapore in 2019.
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