BJP needs robots to follow diktats, not committed workers: Kunal Sarangi

Ranchi, Jul 16 (PTI) Former BJP leader in Jharkhand Kunal Sarangi on Tuesday slammed the party leadership, alleging that the saffron camp has been "functioning like a multinational company" and needs "robots to follow diktats from headquarters".

Sarangi, who quit the BJP on July 7, said the party does "not need committed workers".

“It is no longer a party with differences and leaders and workers have to follow diktats from the headquarters. The BJP has been functioning like a multinational company where there is a structure and everybody has to follow this. It needs robots to follow only commands. Here innovation or doing things differently is not allowed,” Sarangi told PTI.

A former JMM MLA from Bahragora, Sarangi had joined the BJP ahead of the assembly polls in 2019.

Later, he was elevated to the post of party spokesperson.

“I had joined the BJP to get an opportunity to work on a national platform. But, things were different. There is bickering within the state leadership. The committed party workers are being treated at par with those, accused in murder or rape cases, coming from other parties,” he said.

Sarangi, who was one of the strong contenders for a BJP ticket from Jamshedpur in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, resigned as the party spokesperson on May 19.

“There is a limit to humiliation. I was the party’s spokesperson but I was not even informed when the prime minister visited our region during the Lok Sabha election campaign,” he said.

He alleged that the party leadership asked him to "make personal attacks on Chief Minister Hemant Soren".

“There may be differences in ideology but I had no personal issue with Hemant Soren. I cannot ignore the fact that whatever recognition I got as a politician is only due to him. Soren brought me into politics,” Sarangi added. PTI SAN BDC