‘No point hanging around in party’: Dilip hints at BJP exit
Times of India | 6 July 2024
Kolkata: Former Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh on Friday hinted at retirement from active politics if he was not given any responsibility in the party. “If there is no work for me, it means the party doesn’t need me any more. There is no point in hanging around,” Ghosh told TOI.
“I was an MP earlier. I was accountable to people. Since I am no longer an MP now, I am a free man.I will do something else now,” he added. “There’s still a long time to go for the assembly polls in 2026. There is a process to change office-bearers. Let that process be over. I will not stay put here without any work,” Ghosh said.
An RSS pracharak, Ghosh was “loaned” to BJP by the Sangh. He was made a general secretary of the Bengal unit in 2014 and elevated to the post of state president the next year. During his tenure as state unit chief, BJP strengthened its organisation in the state and bagged 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “I never had plans for financial gains. Nor did I work to hold posts. I worked because the party wanted me to deliver some specific results,” Ghosh said on Friday.
He was replaced by Sukanta Majumdar as state unit chief in 2021. Ghosh was made a national vice-president. In July last year, he ceased to hold the office after the party decided to relieve all MPs of organisational responsibilities. “I have not been attending any organisational meetings in the past two years. They didn’t give me a position. I came with a specific mandate to strengthen the party in Bengal. That’ss over, it seems,” he said.
“I don’t go to the Salt Lake party office unless there is a particular need. Normally, I am available at the Muralidhar Sen Lane office. Workers come to meet me. There isn’t any restriction to entry there, like in Salt Lake,” Ghosh said.
Speaking on this, some Bengal BJP functionaries said on Friday that returning to RSS after the completion of “loan period” was nothing new for pracharaks.
Meanwhile, Ghosh on Friday attended an election campaign for Kalyan Chaubey for the Maniktala bypolls.