KOLKATA: Hours after BJP’s Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee opposing the Centre’s jute policy and requesting her to intervene in the issue of price cap on raw jute, he was summoned to Delhi on Saturday by the saffron party leadership.
The BJP top brass has asked Singh to meet Union textiles minister Piyush Goyal and discuss the matter. The MP had recently written to Goyal criticising the regulatory body’s decision to cap the price of raw jute. This is the first time in the recent past that a BJP MP is opposing a Central policy and seeking intervention of a chief minister who belongs to an opposition party.
The letter of the BJP MP, who had defected to the saffron camp from Trinamool Congress, is said to be politically significant as Singh is desperate to retain his support base among the jute mill workers in his constituency.
The jute mill workers, who form a considerable chunk Barrackpore’s electorate, had extended their support for Singh in the 2019 Lok Sabha election but the BJP failed to bag the Barrackpore Assembly seat in the 2021 polls.
Besides than Mamata, Singh also wrote to the chief ministers of Bihar, Assam and Tripura on the same issue. “I am requesting you to interfere in this matter with the Union ministry of textiles for saving millions of jute farmers, jute workers and jute industry,” Singh wrote to Mamata in his letter on Friday.