Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) first list of 28 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal has triggered a fresh round of intense bickering within the saffron party.
In several districts, aspirants and disgruntled party workers have come out in protest. The reason: The party has somewhat pinned hopes on defectors to take on the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government.
Of the 28 candidates, nearly 25 are new faces.
The TMC list had 18 new faces with a mix of old-timers, greenhorns and film personalities.
Senior BJP leaders welcome the list, but the cadres have expressed dissent.
Party workers resorted to violence in Bolpur, where expelled TMC MP Anupam Hazra was tipped to contest. Hazra was later made the Jadavpur candidate.
Cooch Behar and Bashirat also witnessed similar incidents. Workers demanded local candidates in these seats after the BJP named Nisith Pramanik (Cooch Behar) and Sayantan Basu (Bashirat) as candidates.
The saffron party, which bagged two Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 elections, is now targeting 22-plus seats. Bengal elects 42 lawmakers.
In the BJP list, there are four women candidates and one Muslim nominee.
Of the 28 candidates, five had recently defected to the saffron party from the Trinamool Congress and one from the CPI(M).
Union minister and BJP MP from Asansol Lok Sabha constuency Babul Supriyo has been re-nominated. He is pitted against actress Moon Moon Sen of the Trinamool.
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh will contest from Midnapur seat against veteran Trinamool leader Manas Bhunia.
BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha will take on TMC heavyweight Sudip Bandopadhyay in Kolkata North.
State BJP vice-president Chandra Kumar Bose, the grand nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, will contest from Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat against TMC’s Mala Roy.
The BJP has also fielded former Trinamool Congress MLA Arjun Singh from Barrackpur Lok Sabha seat.
Singh, who had recently joined the saffron party, has been pitted against TMC's Dinesh Trivedi.
In Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat, the party has fielded former TMC youth leader Nishith Pramanik.
In Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat, expelled TMC MP Anupam Hazra will contest against his former party's Mimi Chakraborty, an actor by profession. Former Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya is the CPM candidate here.
Another former TMC MP Soumitra Khan, who joined the BJP in January, will contest from Bishnupur (SC) Lok Sabha seat.
Former CPI(M) MLA Khagen Murmu, who too recently switched over to the BJP, will contest from Malda North seat. Murmu will take on TMCs Mausam Benazir Noor, who had recently defected to the party from the Congress.
Former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh, once Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's aide, will be fighting against TMC candidate and actor Dipak Adhikary, popularly known as 'Dev', from Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency.
Ghosh, 51, who used to call Mamata as “mother”, faced CID investigation on charges of extortion.
She recently joined BJP in New Delhi. She had also returned a medal and certificate for commendable service that Mamata gave her on August 15, 2014.
The BJP has not announced its candidate for Darjeeling constituency. This seat was won by S S Ahluwalia with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) support in 2014.
However, there is a groundswell of public anger against the MP in Darjeeling.
TMC has fielded Amar Singh Rai from the seat.
Meanwhile, a group of BJP activists vandalised furniture, ransacked the party office and heckled Cooch Behar district chief Malati Rava to protest the nomination of Nisith Pramanik.
“We do not want any turncoat to be selected from Cooch Behar. The party did not consider leaders who have been fighting against Trinamool for years. We are disappointed,” said a BJP worker.
Rava said the central leadership had nominated Pramanik and the district leaders have ‘no right to say anything’ on the issue.
Taking strong exception to the protest, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said those not willing to accept the central leadership’s decision may leave the party.
“We have gained in strength in West Bengal over the past two-three years. As a cadre-based and disciplined party, we have to accept the decision. Those who are opposing it can leave us,” said Ghosh.
Slogans were also raised against state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu, the Bashirhat candidate. The party workers' grouse was that he was not a local.
Basu said TMC cadres were behind such protests.
Meanwhile, BJP state joint secretary Rakjkamal Pathak resigned from his post for not getting a ticket to contest.
“I asked for a ticket from either Hooghly or Srirampore. I have never contested a poll. But this time too I was denied a ticket,” said Pathak.
Seems like the BJP is facing a problem of plenty in Bengal.
The Lok Sabha elections in the state will be held from April 11 till May 19 in seven phases.
