The attack on Bengal BJP’s candidate Bharati Ghosh allegedly by TMC workers was the most talking point in the sixth phase of elections on Sunday. Former IPS officer was allegedly attacked not once but twice by the locals in Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency when she tried to visit few polling stations in her constituency to see the mood of voting and interact with her supporters. Bharati Ghosh is a contesting against actor Deepak ( Dev) Adhikari of the Trinamool Congress. Ex top-cop who was a close aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was not spared by TMC supporters.
Bharati cried in the morning after she was attacked, heckled and pushed to the ground at a polling station.In Keshpur village in Ghatal which is 145 km from Kolkata, witnessed ugly scenes when supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress allegedly heckled and gave chase to Ghosh who was compelled to take a shelter in a temple. Later she jumped a boundary wall and entered the police station in Keshpur.
She was stopped again while she was in car and her convoy became the target of attack. Upset by the developments, former IPS officer alleged that there was massive rigging in Midnapore. In Keshpur Bazar area, Trinamool supporters threw stones at Bharati Ghosh’s car, the police and at the media which proved that there was a total lockdown in the area.
Earlier, she was surrounded and heckled allegedly by the women supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress when BJP candidate Ghosh tried to enter a voting centre in Keshpur with her polling agent. She had reportedly sustained minor injuries in the attack.
IPS Bharati Ghosh’s background
Bharati Ghosh is a highly educated IPS officer. She is an MBA from the Jadavpur University in Kolkata and an LLB from the Burdwan University in Burdwan, West Bengal. She has done higher studies in International Marketing and Psycho-Analytical Theory from Harvard University’s summer school. She has won the Chevening Gurukul Fellowship of the UK government and studied at the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science.
She has served in UN and worked in Chad, Central African Republic, Ethiopia and Somalia. She was also a UN Commander of a multi-brigade force at Kosovo.
Top cop’s checkered career
Bharati Ghosh’s contribution as the superintendent of police ( SP) of Maoist-infested West Midnapore district is significant. She is credited with successfully cracking down on left-wing extremism in the district. Her actions reportedly brought her close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Ghosh was awarded the Chief Minister’s medal for Commendable Service in 2014.
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the West Bengal Assembly elections of 2016, she was charged with intimidating poll officials by opposition parties and several others. However, IPS officer Ghosh was transferred twice, once by the Election Commission before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the second time by the state itself before the 2016 Assembly elections.
As the time passed, Ghosh reportedly grew close to Mukul Roy who was also a close- confidant of Mamata Banerjee.When Mukul Roy quit TMC in November 2017 and joined the BJP. West Bengal Chief Minister reportedly believed that Ghosh was behind Roy’s departure thereby creating a wedge between the two. In between some reports suggested about Ghosh helping Mukul Roy build a strong voter base in Jungle Mahal.
Reports from the Trinamool Congress also suggested that Ghosh had helped the BJP increase its vote share in a byelection. Towards the end of 2017 , Banerjee transferred Ghosh to the post of commanding officer of a battalion of the State Armed Police in Barrackpore. But Bharti Ghosh resigned from the service two days later.
Former IPS officer’s hurdles
Following her resignation, she started facing troubles in February 2018 as an arrest warrant was issued against her. This was done in connection with an extortion case registered at Daspur police station in West Midnapore district. The CID was investigating the cases including extortion and misconduct.
The CID had conducted raids at various properties, including a house in Kolkata that belongs to her husband M A V Raju. In February 2019, She joined the BJP in West Bengal and got the ticket from Ghatal Lok Sabha constitutency.
