KOLKATA: The BJP leadership is likely to announce on Sunday night its list of candidates in remaining 39 out of 294 assembly seats in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.
The central BJP leadership has already nominated its candidates for 255 assembly seats prompting party workers from different constituencies to stage protest at the Salt Lake state party office on Thursday and Friday demanding replacement of several nominees.
The selection of candidates for the 39 assembly seats may be finalised in a meeting in Delhi on Sunday evening where BJP’s central leadership including party president Nitin Nabin, Amit Shah, JP Nadda and others from Bengal unit will be present, it’s learnt.
Rinku Majumder, wife of the former Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, who had submitted her bio-data to the state party office much before the poll dates were announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking a nomination either from Rajarhat-New Town or Bijpur assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district.
She expressed her ire over the state BJP leadership after not finding her among 255 nominees announced by the party on two separate dates earlier this week.
Peeyush Kanoria has been fielded from Rajarhat-New Town by the party prompting Rinku to express her anger in front of the media.
“The candidate fielded by the party leadership from Rajarhat-New Town is not proper choice,” she told the media.
Till Sunday evening, the saffron camp had not finalised its third list of candidates in the remaining 39 seats, including Ballyganj, Kolkata Port, Howrah Central, Panihati among other important seats.
The mother of the brutal rape and murder victim of the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, popularly called Abhaya, is likely to be fielded by the party from Panihati, her home constituency.
The victim’s mother vowed to defeat the Trinamool Congress government and said that the downfall of the Trinamool regime would bring justice to her daughter. Abhaya’s mother also targeted the CPI(M) leadership and alleged that the party leaders had used the death of her daughter as a political opportunity.
On Thursday, BJP workers demanded that Beleghata candidate Partha Choudhury be replaced with someone from among local activists and old guard. Some workers raised slogans against Choudhury and claimed that his selection would help the Trinamool Congress win the seat.
BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya and the party’s state general secretary, Locket Chatterjee, came out of their chambers and attempted to pacify the aggrieved workers. However, Bhattacharya made it clear that the decision was final once a candidate was declared. The agitation was not restricted to the state headquarters only.
After the second list of the candidates was announced on Thursday evening, the protests were reported from several districts. The party had published the names of 144 candidates in the first phase, mostly from seats where there was little scope for dissent. In the second phase, the BJP announced 111 candidates, many of which saw some discontent. On Friday, BJP workers staged protests in several districts, including Malda, Murshidabad’s Burwan, and Hooghly’s Balagarh.