Made remarks to lift morale of party cadres: Dilip Ghosh

KOLKATA: Facing flak over his controversial remarks against TMC workers, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh today said he had made the comments to lift the morale of his party cadres who were being allegedly attacked by ruling party activists.

"Whatever I have said I didn't mean it. I said it to lift the morale of our party workers who are being attacked everyday by TMC goons. We don't have the strength to break someone's bones. It was a comment made to lift the morale," Ghosh told PTI.

BJP National Secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said there is no place for violence in politics.

"There is no place for violence in politics but Dilip Ghosh's comments need to be looked into in the larger perspective of the situation existing in Bengal where the law and order machinery has completely broken due to the violence sponsored by TMC," Singh said.

Ghosh has kicked up a storm with his remarks that his party workers, "trained" by RSS, can break the shoulders of TMC activists with "bare hands", drawing criticism from political parties, including TMC, Congress and the Left.

He had asked TMC workers to "stop" violence, "mend" their ways or face "consequences" when they travel outside West Bengal.

"They can't do whatever they want and beat up our cadres without reason. TMC is thinking they can do whatever they want. But, they should remember one thing that outside Bengal, it's only BJP and BJP," Ghosh told a public rally in Kharagpur last week.