BJP banking on ex-IPS officer Debasish Dhar to halt TMC's juggernaut in West Bengal's Birbhum
BJP has sprung a surprise in West Bengal's Birbhum constituency, pitting former IPS officer Debasish Dhar, who was suspended by the Mamata Banerjee government after the 2021 assembly elections, in a bid to halt TMC's Satabdi Roy from winning a fourth consecutive term. The absence of TMC's former Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal, whose strong-arm tactics and controversial comments lent both fear and colour to the political scene here, seems to have made the electoral atmosphere a little lacklustre, but the BJP is seeing a level-playing field, owing to the new scenario.
Mondal was arrested by the CBI in 2022 in a money laundering case related to cattle smuggling in West Bengal. He is at present lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail.
A political novice, Dhar has been entrusted with the onerous task of putting brakes on the actor-politician from emerging triumphant again in Birbhum in the western part of the state.
«I got the offer to join politics and contest the election from Birbhum from a very high-level functionary,» he said.
Speaking to PTI, Dhar said that since the offer was from a «very high-level» functionary, whose name he did not reveal, he took the decision to accept it «within an hour».
Sounding confident of wresting the seat from the TMC, the former IPS officer said he is getting full organisational support from the saffron party workers.
Dhar was the superintendent of police of Cooch Behar during the 2021 assembly polls, when four persons died in firing by the central forces at Sitalkuchi in the
