Ahead of Bengal civic polls, BJP fears infighting over candidate list

The state president of BJP in West Bengal and the party MP, Sukanta Majumdar is in New Delhi. He will first interact with the central and district leadership of the party and only afterwards will the selection of the candidates be made, mainly on the suggestions of the district committees.

Kolkata: With the elections for 108 municipalities in West Bengal scheduled for February 27, the BJP Bengal unit is already seeing signs of infighting over the selection of candidates. The state president of BJP in West Bengal and the party MP, Sukanta Majumdar is in New Delhi. He will first interact with the central and district leadership of the party and only afterwards will the selection of the candidates be made, mainly on the suggestions of the district committees.

Party sources said the state leadership has already smelled that infighting may break out over candidate selection as it happened in the case of Trinamool Congress. "That is why Sukanta Majumdar is in New Delhi now to hold a discussion on this count with the party’s national vice president, Dilip Ghosh and party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya. There will be virtual meetings from Delhi with the district leadership and then only the final candidate list will be announced," said a senior state BJP leader who did not wish to be named.

BJP sources further said that the district presidents have submitted their suggested lists to the state committee and the committee is going through the lists before the final announcement. However, on Monday evening, the list for Alipurduar district was announced. Sources said that since the strength of BJP is more in north Bengal than south, the candidate announcement process has started from the area. The candidates for all the 108 municipalities will be announced in the next couple of days.

Commenting on the matter, Sukanta Majumdar told ETV Bharat that "there is no infighting in BJP over candidate selections". “We are finalizing the candidates based on the suggestions of local and district leadership. The candidate lists for 108 municipalities will be announced within the next couple of days,” he said.