New Delhi: Tathagata Roy, the former governor of Tripura and Meghalaya, Tuesday slammed BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh for handing out tickets to film and TV actors who eventually failed to win votes, listing it as a possible reason for the BJP’s defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections.
Slamming the BJP’s election management team for giving electoral tickets to “film and TV actors who never had anything to do with politics”, he called several actors-turned-BJP nominees such as Parno Mitra, Srabanti Chatterjee and Payel Sarkar “politically stupid” after they lost from Baranagar, Behala West and Behala East constituencies, respectively.
“Film and TV actors who never had anything to do with politics,let alone BJP, were handed tickets by BJP’s election management team,” Roy tweeted.
Film and TV actors who never had anything to do with politics,let alone BJP,were handed tickets by BJP’s election management team. Parno Mitra (Baranagar),Srabanti Chatterjee (Behala West),Payel Sarkar (Behala East). These women were so politically stupid that they had gone on
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) May 4, 2021
Roy went on to say that “these women were so politically stupid that they had gone on a steamer trip with TMC’s playboy-politician Madan Mitra less than a month before elections and shot selfies with him”.
“All were roundly defeated. What great qualities were these women possessed of? Kailash Vijayvargiya,Dilip Ghosh & Co must answer,” Roy continued in his tweet thread.
In a later post in the same thread, however, he pointed out an “error” in one of his tweets and regretted it: “Tanusree Chakraborty,NOT Parno Mitra,shot selfies with Madan Mitra. The error is regretted.”
Roy, who had earlier said he wanted to get back to his slot in Bengal BJP or even become the chief ministerial face if the party insists, also said: “It must not be forgotten that a BJP electoral ticket carries with it substantial money for running the election. Or for other purposes!”
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He had ‘warned’ BJP of turncoats earlier
Tathagata Roy, who was the Bengal BJP president from 2002 to 2006, is known for his controversial tweets. In one such tweet last year, he likened Lebanon to West Bengal, saying Bangladeshi Muslim infiltration encouraged by the state government will make Hindu Bengalis suffer.
demography. Then began a disastrous civil war and once-prosperous Lebanon was finished.
West Bengal is suffering the same fate thru governmental indulgence. Bangladeshi Muslim infiltration plus the same procreative genius. What is in store for us Bengali Hindus?
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) August 11, 2020
In another provocative post, which he had to later delete due to public outrage, Roy suggested the central government adopt China’s Tiananmen-like treatment to tackle the communal violence led by Delhi riots.
Roy had earlier also said the West Bengal BJP needed to “purge” itself of the “moles and informers” joining from other parties, as they could “betray” it.
In an exclusive interview to ThePrint in September last year, he had said “some of the turncoats” who had joined the BJP “do not have honest intentions”.
Advising the party to also scrutinise the background of those joining it, Roy said there should be an “examination process in place for the new inductees”.
“Our party now needs to purge. It also needs to put an examination process in place for the new inductees. Due to shortsightedness of some leaders in BJP, some anti-BJP elements are trying to thrive in the party.”
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mazumdar)
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