BJP MP's meeting with CPI(M) leader part of plan to destabilise state: TMC

Kolkata/ Siliguri: A meeting between two BJP lawmakers and a CPI(M) leader in northern Bengal has raised eyebrows in the TMC camp, with ruling party claiming that it was part of a "greater design to destabilise" the region and the state government.

Both the saffron party leadership and CPI(M)'s Ashok Bhattacharya, however, refuted the claims and speculations, and said it was just a "courtesy visit".

BJP's Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, along with Siliguri MLA Shankar Ghosh, had on Monday visited Bhattacharya, former Siliguri mayor, at his residence, and shortly after shared pictures of the meeting on social media.

"Today, I called on Sri Ashok Bhattacharya, ex-State Minister, former Mayor of SMC and MLA Siliguri at his residence to exchange Diwali Greetings. I was accompanied by @DrShankarGhosh MLA Siliguri and other Dist and Mandal Karyakartas," Bista had tweeted.

The TMC, in its mouthpiece 'Jago Bangla', was quick to infer that the meeting was set up for an arrangement to "destabilise the state government by December".

TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh later said: "This is not just a courtesy meeting but part of a greater design to destabilise northern Bengal. The BJP, since its defeat in the last Assembly polls, had been trying to divide the state by either fanning the demand for a union territory or a separate state. We condemn these cheap politics."

Several senior BJP MPs and MLAs had in the past openly advocated the bifurcation of Bengal, either by creation of a new state or a Union territory by carving out north Bengal.

Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had said on occasions that the TMC-led government would not complete its full term and its days were numbered in the state.

Notably, BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh, once an influential CPI(M) leader of Siliguri, was in the past considered a close associate of Bhattacharya.

He had switched over to the saffron camp after being denied a party ticket in the last Assembly polls.

Ghosh contested on a BJP ticket and defeated six-time MLA Bhattacharya to clinch the Siliguri Assembly seat.