Sikdar: Looking to start anew?

Siliguri, May 28: Former Union minister and ousted BJP leader Tapan Sikdar was here in town today, ostensibly to garner support for Uma Bharati?s Bharatiya Janashakti Party (also BJP) ? which he has joined recently.

?I am here to form committees, gauge the support base and arrange public meetings in north Bengal for the new party,? said Sikdar at a news conference today. The former BJP leader has still not been assigned a post in the new party but he claimed to be an ?organiser? entrusted with the responsibility of developing the outfit in Bengal.

?Ideologically, we are similar to the BJP and share the ideals once envisaged by their founder members. However, the BJP leadership in the state has stopped performing and has lost its contact with the masses. A similar violation of party guidelines all over the country prompted us to form a new party,? Sikdar said.

The former minister went to the extent of saying that ?non-performance? of the Trinamul-BJP combine in the state had helped the ruling Left Front to garner bonus points in the recently concluded Assembly elections. The combine had particularly fared badly in the region winning only one seat.

Trashing the claims made by the ousted leader, Cooch Behar district president of the BJP Hem Chandra Barman said: ?It is not true that we are losing support and this time our candidates across the state have garnered more votes than in 2001. I personally contested from Mathabhanga and polled over 50,000 votes. I do not think Sikdar or his new party will pose any problem for us here.?