Netaji's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose resigns from BJP

Kolkata: Chandra Kumar Bose, the grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and grandson of Sarat Chandra Bose, on Wednesday resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleging that the promises of propagating the nationalist leader's vision were not fulfilled by the party.

Bose, who joined the BJP in 2016, contested in the assembly elections the same year, and in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 on BJP ticket.

"When I joined BJP, I was promised that I would be allowed to propagate the inclusive ideology of the Bose brothers (Netaji and his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose, also a freedom fighter). But nothing of that sort happened," he said.

Bose, who was appointed the West Bengal BJP vice-president in 2016, was dropped from it during the 2020 organisational reshuffle.

He had time and again hit out at the BJP state leadership over several issues and also opposed the CAA in 2019, going against the party line.

"My discussions (with BJP) then centered on the inclusive ideology of the Bose brothers. My understanding, both then and later, had been that I would propagate this ideology across the country on the BJP Platform,” he said in his resignation letter to BJP national president J P Nadda.

“It was also decided to form an Azad Hind Morcha within the framework of BJP with the primary objective to propagate Netaj's ideology of uniting all communities as Bharatiyas, irrespective of religion, caste, and creed," he added.

He further said that this was essential to keep the country united. My ardent promotional efforts to achieve these laudable objectives have not received any support from the BJP, either at the Centre or at the state level in West Bengal. I had put forward a detailed proposal suggesting a Bengal Strategy to reach out to the people of the state. My proposals were ignored.

Reacting to his resignation, BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, "For quite a long time he was not at all in touch with the party."

With inputs from PTI