Bengal BJP livid after state chief Dilip Ghosh finds ‘PM material’ in Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata, Jan 6: The BJP chief of West Bengal Dilip Ghosh on Saturday, January 5, praised state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on her 65th birthday and said if any Bengali has a chance to become the prime minister of the country, it is the latter.

"We want her to be fit so that she can work well. She needs to remain fit because if there is any Bengali who has the chance to be the PM from this Bengal, then she is the one," Ghosh while extending birthday wishes to her.

The remark of the state BJP chief has left the BJP is a deep embarrassment since the saffron party is engaged in a fight to defeat Banerjee is her own state as well as the anti-Narendra Modi front across the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due in some months.

BJP MP from Bengal Babul Supriyo has said that Ghosh's remark has no connection with the reality and the state BJP feels such a remark when the general polls are approaching caused the party a great deal of damage. It has also been reported that a section of the party complained against Ghosh to the national president, Amit Shah.

Mukul Roy, a former close aide to Banerjee who joined the BJP a few years ago, said Ghosh's remark had been distorted and that Banerjee has no capability of becoming the prime minister. A section of the media saw this as an indirect disapproval of Ghosh's statement by Roy, with whom he is considered to have a cold rivalry in the state chapter of the party.

Supriyo, who once had a spat with Ghosh in the open at a BJP programme, said though he also wished Banerjee over her birthday, he was not in favour of seeing a longer political career for the Trinamool Congress chief saying it would help the state as well as the country.

Jyoti Basu & Pranab Mukherjee missed the chance of becoming PM closely

No Bengali has ever become the prime minister of India. CPI(M) strongman Jyoti Basu had come closest to become the prime minister in 1996 but was pulled back by his own party which he termed as a "historic blunder". Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee was also considered to become the PM a few times but eventually he was not to be, thanks to the decisions taken by the Gandhi-dominated party.