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Amit Shah, Nadda hold meetings as protests break out in BJP over candidate list
While Nadda has come to the state to bolster the party’s campaign and is scheduled to hold rallies in the district today, Shah went to Assam after holding rallies in poll-bound Bengal on Monday. He was scheduled to fly back to Delhi but instead, returned to Kolkata late on Monday night
Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP’s national president JP Nadda have meetings since Monday evening as hundreds of party workers protested against the fielding of a large number of former TMC leaders as party candidate.
A senior BJP leader said that while Shah and Nadda held a meeting in Kolkata on Monday night, a second meeting was held on Tuesday morning. Senior state BJP leaders also attended the meeting, the outcome of which is yet to be known.
While Nadda has come to the state to bolster the party’s campaign and is scheduled to hold rallies in the district today, Shah went to Assam after holding rallies in poll-bound Bengal on Monday. He was scheduled to fly back to Delhi but instead, returned to Kolkata late on Monday night.
The party has denied any upheaval within over candidate selection. “There were no state-wide protests. Only a few stray incidents took place. Many people who were attracted towards the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the party to bring in real transformation in Bengal. It’s a teething problem which also affects children,” said BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.
While the party had announced the names of candidates for the first two phases earlier this month, it named 63 candidates on Sunday; 27 for the third phase and 36 for the fourth phase.
The list includes names of four actors and several former TMC leaders, who had recently sided with the BJP. Some former TMC leaders and legislators who were not given tickets joined the BJP earlier this month too. Later, many of them got BJP tickets.
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On Monday, a few hundred BJP workers reached the party office in Kolkata to stage protests. While some sat on the roads, others could be seen shouting slogans and trying to break police barricades. Senior party leaders such as national vice president Mukul Roy and MP Arjun Singh also had to face their ire. “We would speak to our workers and leaders. A report would be sent to the central leadership,” Singh told reporters.
Protests also broke out in various constituencies, including Uttarpara and Haripal, where former TMC leaders have been fielded by the BJP. Posters against the BJP candidates also surfaced and at Panchla in Howrah, a BJP office was ransacked.
Protests erupted at Joynagar, Raydighi and Kultali in South 24 Parganas with demands to change he candidate. Similar rumblings could be heard in Sitai in Cooch Behar. At Chunchura in Hooghly, workers locked up the party office after an MP was fielded as a candidate.
At Saptagram, the BJP is yet to field any candidate but party supporters staged protests and burnt tyres over rumours that a former TMC leader could be given the ticket.
A BJP minister from Madhya Pradesh was locked inside a room by irate party workers in Singur after the party fielded a former TMC leader who joined the BJP this month. At Tribeni, a BJP worker even threatened to die by suicide in protests.
The TMC reacted to the development by taking a jibe at the BJP. BJP lacks leaders in West Bengal and so, is borrowing candidates from other parties, it said.
“The party which sidelined senior leaders like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi over their age, is now giving tickets to octogenarian leaders who left the TMC and joined the BJP. Actually they don’t have enough leaders and faces to project,” said TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.
The eight-phase elections for 294 seats of the West Bengal assembly are scheduled to be held between March 27 and April 29. Counting of votes will be held on May 2.
