Row over Dilip-Bimal chat

Dilip Ghosh leaves for Namchi on Friday

TT, Oct. 6: Dilip Ghosh's conversation with Bimal Gurung yesterday has invited a fresh controversy, with Trinamul leaders questioning if it was ethical for the Bengal BJP chief to speak to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president who has serious charges against him.

"He has been speaking with a person who has serious charges, including those under provisions of the UAPA, against him for perpetrating violence and indulging in anti-national activities. Being an MLA and leader of a political party, it is an unethical move," state tourism minister Gautam Deb said today.

Ghosh today visited Namchi in South Sikkim, where the Morcha chief had held his party's last central committee meeting.

Before leaving Namchi around 8.30am today, Ghosh said: "I did not have any plan to meet him (Gurung). He is absconding and the government does not want he should meet me, meet the public or come out in the open."

The BJP leader said it was Gurung who had called him up.

"He called me up. I told him that 'you have been beaten for four months while I was beaten only on one day and there is nothing to worry as this is the kind of politics that takes place in Bengal'," Ghosh said.

Gurung said some of his associates were in touch with the BJP. "Yes, I called him up. A person who had come to review the situation on the ground was assaulted by the stooges of the state government. However, I could not meet him personally during his current tour."

Political analysts feel that Ghosh's decision to visit Char Dham, a pilgrim spot in Namchi, of all places in Sikkim has something more than what meets the eye.

"Gurung needs the support of the BJP for his political survival and to take on Mamata Banerjee. Ghosh's decision to visit Namchi is interesting against this backdrop," said an observer.