Ready to explain views about Bengal situation to central leaders: BJP MP

PTI, May 16, 2022, 5:30 PM IST

Kolkata: BJP MP Arjun Singh, who had been critical of the Centre’s policy towards the jute sector and the party’s state unit, on Monday said he is ready to explain his views about the issues raised by them to the BJP central leadership.

While talking to reporters at the airport here before leaving for Delhi to meet BJP top brass on being summoned, Singh claimed that what he had said was not against the party.

”The policy of the Centre is bleeding the already sick jute sector. The Centre is not listening to our suggestion about fixing the jute problem. I have no hesitation to speak the truth in the interest of industry,” he said.

Singh is the MP of Barrackpore, an industrial area where several jute mills are facing raw jute crisis. On his assertion that leaders having no touch with ground-level workers and active only on social media are getting prominence in the state BJP, he said that he had not done anything against the party since he joined it. ”I have only spoken against the system in the state BJP, which is causing more harm than good to the party’s prospects. If I am asked to explain my views (by the central leadership), I will do the same,” he added.

Singh had left the Trinamool Congress to join the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP’s state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said that he cannot comment on Singh’s reported statements. ”The central BJP will take a call on the issue.”