Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Shuvendu Adhikari did not attend the BJP’s organizational meeting in Kolkata on Saturday. The incident has raised eyebrows as the BJP’s first organizational meeting after the party’s debacle in the recently held civic polls in West Bengal. The party failed to win a single municipality out of the 108 municipalities where elections were held. On the other hand, TMC had fun on this episode.
Even though Shuvendu Adhikari did not respond to the call, a senior BJP leader said that the officer had informed the state leadership late Friday night that he would not be able to attend Saturday’s meeting. The officer was to address the meeting. BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh said the officials were absent. I don’t know why He would have informed the state leadership about it. I went there because I was invited.
The results in the civic polls came as a major embarrassment for the BJP in West Bengal as the BJP did not have a single municipality in its 108 civic bodies. Not only did the BJP fail to secure the Contai municipality in East Midnapore, the party also lost in the ward where Shuvendu Adhikari lives.
On the other hand, prominent leaders who attended the organizational meeting of BJP included Ghosh, party’s IT wing chief Amit Malviya, party’s chief in West Bengal Sukanta Majumdar, party veteran Rahul Sinha.
TMC took a dig
The TMC took a dig at Shuvendu Adhikari’s absence at the BJP’s organizational meeting. Said that the BJP is now being led by a “gang of failures”. TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that “I have heard that one of the members of the ‘failure gang’ running the party did not attend the meeting. It is natural. Lost in his own ward. I have also heard that BJP’s An MP has said that the party should introspect after the humiliating defeat in the civic polls. The leaders of the present state should take some private tuition from the MP.”