KOLKATA: The BJP’s national leadership has asked all its 18 MPs to participate and lead campaigns in municipal areas in their respective constituencies before the civic polls in Bengal which is scheduled to be held in April-May this year.
The party’s elected representatives in the Lok Sabha have been asked to consider the municipal election as a preamble of the saffron camp’s ‘Mission Bengal’ in 2021 assembly polls and hit the roads to secure the candidates’ victory.
The party already formed a 57-member panel comprising 18 MPs, 10 MLAs who will work under the leadership of senior leader Mukul Roy. In a meeting on Friday, the committee conveyed the message from the party’s national leadership.
“The MPs could not be present in the meeting because of the ongoing Lok Sabha session. But we have conveyed the message from Delhi that the civic poll should be treated as mini-assembly poll ahead of the crucial 2021 assembly elections. The MPs and other committee members have been asked to attend the next two meetings which will be held on February 14 and 15,’’ said a BJP leader.
Elaborating on what prompted the party to engage its MPs in poll campaigns, the leader said, “Our party workers think the BJP is not interested in the elections of the local civic bodies and as a result they do not act in full swing. But this is not true. This is why we will use our MPs to organise intense poll campaigns. This time we will go for an all-out electoral battle with other political forces in the civic polls as it is the first election after CAA and the last one before the state assembly polls.’’