The Trinamool Congress has strongly objected to unparliamentarily languages being used by senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh against Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
In a protest letter to the Election Commission of India the party has demanded action under the Model Code of Conduct, Bengal minister Chandrima Bhattacharya on Tuesday said adding an eight-member team of the party would meet the ECI officials on Wednesday in that regard.
The BJP has shifted Ghosh a sitting MP from Midnapore to Burdwan-Durgapur constituency where he will take on TMC candidate and former India player Kirti Azad.
"We have demanded strong action against Dilip Ghosh who is a senior leader of his party for using derogatory and filthy words against a woman who is also the Chief Minister of our State," Bhattacharya said adding the people of Bengal were watching the level of BJP's admiration for women.
"Tomorrow an eight-member TMC delegation would go to the ECI and meet the officials there … the team will also consist of men as we believe men and women are complementary to each other and the men have always played an important role in preserving the dignity of women," she said.
RMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh too attacked Ghosh for using uncouth language against the Chief Minister reminding him how his party had "kicked him out of his home constituency at Midnapore for not being polite to people."
Kunal Ghosh said "Dilip Ghosh lacks basic political culture and has a bad grooming as he does not even know how to behave with women … he has used bad words against Mamata Banerjee earlier also and the people of Bengal make his party pay the price for that … this time also the people are watching it all and they will definitely give a befitting reply."
In its letter to the ECI the TMC wrote "such remarks not only attempt to undermine the stature of Smt. Mamata Banerjee but also directly attack her personal character and modesty, which amounts to blatant violation of the MCC. It is expected that our political representatives engage in responsible and respectful dialogue, regardless of ideological differences or political affiliations."
The ECI has asked the district administration for reports on the matter, sources said.
In a passing reference to the Chief Minister Ghosh had earlier during a Holi party said that "Mamata Banerjee should first decide about her parentage before every time calling herself a daughter of this place or that."
The TMC rank and file erupted in anger as Ghosh said, "we have seen in the past too how she told in Goa that she is the daughter of that place … then she claimed to be the daughter of Tripura during her campaign in that State … and she has always been asking for votes saying she is the daughter of Bengal … she should first decide about her real parentage because it is not honourable to change parentage every time."
TMC workers even raised slogans outside a venue where Ghosh had come to celebrate Holi party leading to counter-sloganeering by the saffron workers.
TMC MP Sushmita Deb said "for the past two days, the BJP leaders have been giving long speeches against the insult of one of their women candidates. But the kind of statements the BJP is issuing against the only woman chief minister of this country is against the politics and traditions of this country. The BJP is frustrated in Bengal. It is losing."
Wondering why the BJP's national leadership or for that the National Commission for Women were not speaking a word against Ghosh a former State president and a national vice president of the party Deb "I would like to tell the BJP leaders and NCW chief - you are so concerned about the woman candidate of the BJP but people like you should be ashamed that whenever Mamata Didi is insulted by the BJP, you stay silent. This is your hypocrisy. The country would give you a reply for the same."
Meanwhile, experts said that Ghosh's off-the-cuff remark might just have provided the TMC a political device to set off the political advantage the BJP had recently extracted out of the Sandeshkhali incident where the village women were allegedly sexually victimized by the men of local TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan.
"As it is not usual for a politician of Dilip Ghosh's experience and maturity to use such insensitive words before the elections without considering their impact it seems that he may just have consciously done so handing out a weapon to the opposition perhaps to teach a lesson to his rival group in the State party that is apparently responsible for his forced transfer from Midnapore to Burdwan-Durgapur," said BN Majumdar an election expert.
