`PM' Mamata remark was courtesy: Dilip

TT, Calcutta: Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Sunday said it was out of "political courtesy" that he had remarked that if a Bengali were to become Prime Minister, Mamata Banerjee had chances.

"It was part of political courtesy to wish her (Mamata) on her birthday. But a section of the media has been reading too much into it," Ghosh said on Sunday, adding he had not gone beyond the party line.

Explaining further, the BJP state chief said: "It (be- coming the PM) will remain only a distant dream for her with Trinamul having no capacity to win even a single Lok Sabha seat beyond Bengal. But if she becomes the PM, I will definitely wish her for that." On Saturday, Dilip had said: "Yes, her staying healthy is important because if a Bengali is to become Prime Minister, her chances are there." Sources in the BJP said although Ghosh's remark on Mamata's prime ministerial possibility had attracted much criticism within the party, it was also seen as a ploy of the Sangh Parivar to "break the Opposition unity against the Narendra Modi government" ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

"If Mamata's aspiration of becoming the prime minister is high, the BJP will politically gain from it. Mamata's ambition will not let Opposition parties unite under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi," said a political observer.

He said the chief minister's recent meeting with her Telangana counterpart K. Chandrashekar Rao had pushed up her PM aspiration.