TURA, Jan 25: BJP’s top central functionary is talking about taking “political revenge” against those responsible for the dramatic arrest of party state vice president Bernard Marak last year.
The statement is obliquely aimed at NPP which the BJP had accused of framing charges against the anticipated challenger of Conrad Sangma in South Tura constituency. In what could put the cat among the pigeons, the general secretary of the BJP (Organization) BL Santhosh went ballistic during a general meeting with party members here this afternoon over what he called an attempt to politically decimate Tura MDC, Bernard Marak.
A delegation of the BJP’s top brass came to Tura to hold a meeting to work on deciding candidates for the upcoming polls. The meeting was attended by Rituraj Sinha (co-in charge of BJP-NE), Numal Momin (deputy speaker of Assam), and Ernest Mawrie (BJP state president) among others.
While speaking to party workers during their general meeting, the BJP leader added oxygen to the prevailing anger among party workers over the sensational raid at Rimpu Bagan on the outskirts of Tura. He was charged under POCSO among others, but BJP saw a thread of political conspiracy.
Santhosh did not name anybody but left no doubt about the saffron party’s hurt feelings that led to the use of hard words like “revenge”.
He promised political and democratic revenge against those that sought to harm Bernard by using the state machinery to make a political brownie point.
“In 2010-11, the Congress party tried the same to Amit Shah. They even sent him to jail. Now you know who Amit Shah is and where the people that tried to target him are. I assure you that in the same way, whoever tried to decimate Marak, should be taught the same lesson, whoever it may be” thundered Santosh to rapturous applause from the gathering.
Santosh asserted that political wars needed to be fought politically.
“They should not be taken to a personal level to harm someone’s life. They tried to harm Marak’s life and his family. Should we not take revenge for it politically and democratically,” he asked the gathering to a lot of vocal support from the group.
The BJP is set to be the last party to release the names of candidates in the run-up to the polls, a strategy that they successfully implemented in many states before. Whether this actually helps the party in the upcoming elections will have to wait until the day of counting, March 2.
