Central BJP leadership distances itself from state peers

KOLKATA: All doesn’t seem well between the BJP central leadership and the party’s West Bengal functionaries after the latter were pulled up for criticising newly-appointed Governor CV Ananda Bose’s initiation event into Bengali alphabet on Republic Day at Raj Bhavan in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Incidentally, BJP’s state leadership was conspicuous in its absence. The Bengal leadership has been asked to refrain from making comments which can tarnish the image of the Governor who is known as a ‘man of ideas’ of the Prime Minister. State BJP leaders faced the central leadership’s wrath shortly after Bose’s recent visit to the national Capital.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta had criticised the Raj Bhavan event. “Bengal Governor is close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and criticising him is actually an insult to the PM,” said a senior BJP leader in Kolkata.