KOLKATA: The Bengal BJP has decided to launch a survey in all 144 wards of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) before fielding candidates and releasing its manifesto for the ensuing civic elections.
The party has already decided not to highlight the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the Centre’s proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) in its manifesto and civic poll campaign. Party sources said that the promises that the Trinamool made ahead of the 2010 abd 2014 civic polls but failed to fulfill would be the primary campaign tool of the BJP.
Sources in Bengal BJP said that the party has already dispatched its ground forces, in separate teams, across the wards to sense the public mood. “They’re interacting with locals across the 144 KMC wards and are trying to identify the civic issues that plague them the most. We will highlight people’s issues in our campaign,” a senior BJP leader said.
“We are yet mine political gains out of the CAA, which was brought into force recently. Hence, we have decided not to utter a single word on it during the campaign for the KMC polls. We will remind the people of what the ruling party had promised and what they delivered,” the leader said. He said apart from raising Trinamool’s failed promises, the BJP would also detail all that it plans to do if elected to form the board. The party held a meeting on Thursday, featuring its mandal presidents, to sketch out the battle plan and decide on its candidates. However, the BJP has decided not to portray anyone as its mayoral face. “We won’t project a mayoral face not just for the KMC polls but other civic polls as well,” BJP’s Bengal president Dilip Ghosh said.