Major political parties in West Bengal on Wednesday stayed away from a memorial service of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee organised by the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Kolkata.
This triggered strong reactions by the BJP leaders who accused these parties in West Bengal of treating the party as “political untouchables”.
The State BJP leadership had extended an invite to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Left Front chairperson Biman Basu and the State Congress leadership. “There would have been no Trinamool Congress, had Atal Ji and Advani ji not been around,” BJP leader Mukul Roy said at the memorial.
He was referring to the initial years of the Trinamool Congress when the party allied with the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
Direct criticism
Former State BJP president and party national secretary Rahul Sinha was more direct in his criticism. He said that many in State do not remember how Atal ji used to visit a house in Kolkata and touch the feet of someone’s mother. Mr Sinha’s comment was meant for Ms. Banerjee and how Mr. Vajpayee used to touch her mother’s feet whenever he visited the former’s residence in Kolkata.
“In West Bengal unlike other States, whatever the ruling party does, others follow. They had agreed to come but once the ruling party stayed away, they followed,” he said.
Mr. Sinha also recalled how he had carried a letter of Mr. Vajpayee to veteran Marxist leader and former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.
JD(U), LJP represented
Leaders of Trinamool Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and of other Left parties and Congress stayed away from the event organised at Mahajati Sadan where Governors of West Bengal and Meghalaya K.N. Tripathi Tathagata Roy respectively were present.
Representatives of Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janashakti Party were also present. From the West Bengal government, Minister of State for Tourism and Information and Cultural Affairs was present.
Ms. Banerjee had flown to Delhi on August 16 when the former Prime Minister passed away. TMC leaders were present during the cremation in Delhi. According to TMC leadership, since the party leadership had already offered their condolences in Delhi, there was no point in attending the memorial service here.
BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya said a few months ago when the Congress leaders asked his party to join the memorial service of former Union Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, he represented the BJP.
