'Die-hard loyalist' who grew BJP base in Sandeshkhali
Times of India | 6 May 2024
SANDESHKHALI: His purported video may have gone viral, but BJPSandeshkhali block II mandal president Gangadhar Koyal (54) stayed out of the public eye on Sunday with his family claiming he had "gone to meet CBI".
The son of farmers, Koyal chose to wade into politics in his mid-thirties. Known to be a die-hard party worker, he was a two-time panchayat member in Sandeshkhali before being appointed a mandal president.Local functionaries attested to his loyalty, saying he played a key role in BJP's growing base in the area. In the 2021 assembly polls, when TMC won by a landslide across Bengal, BJP held on to its 35% vote share in Sandeshkhali constituency.
Ganesh Ghosh, a BJP state committee member and former Sandeshkhali assembly organisational president, told TOI: "Koyal has been a die-hard loyalist for over two decades. There are four BJP mandal president posts in Sandeshkhali. Koyal was appointed before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, after which BJP performed well in the LS and assembly elections. We don't believe he can give such wrong statements against BJP."
Echoing Ghosh, BJP's Basirhat Lok Sabha candidate Rekha Patra said: "Kayal can never say these things (the purported statements in the video) as he is a long-time BJP functionary in Sandeshkhali, where many party supporters were rendered homeless, injured and even murdered by TMC-backed goons. The video is fake and the truth will come out after a CBI probe. It doesn't have any impact on our campaign as people can easily understand the conspiracy hatched by TMC."
According to local sources, Koyal's family, residents of Darirjangal, are involved in pisciculture. Wife Bimala said: "The room, chairs and beds shown in the video are the same as in our house, but it wasn't my husband - the video was doctored using high technology. Trinamool hatched this conspiracy; my husband is innocent and being falsely implicated."
Koyal's son said: "We are feeling unsafe. My father's face was superimposed. The words were added. My father has already gone to the CBI office to file a complaint."
Trinamool's Sandeshkhali MLA Sukumar Mahato, however, told TOI: "We have been saying for so long that BJP is playing dirty politics with some women of Sandeshkhali. That is now proved. Koyal is an old BJP functionary, panchayat member and mandal president, who knows everything about the conspiracy and admitted to the crime."