BJP leaders in at least four north Bengal districts have decided to seek voters’ suggestions which can be included in the party’s manifesto for the coming Lok Sabha election.

In Alipurduar district, suggestion boxes were placed in front of BJP offices on Thursday. In Darjeeling, South Dinajpur and Malda districts, such boxes will be placed on Saturday, said BJP functionaries.

“We have 34 mandals in the Alipurduar Lok Sabha constituency and some of them are in Nagrakata and Tufanganj Assembly segments, which are in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts, respectively. We placed suggestion boxes in front of each mandal office yesterday (Thursday). We want to get suggestions from people and know their demands,” said Manoj Tigga, the Alipurduar district president of the BJP.

Tigga, who is also the BJP’s Alipurduar candidate, said after a few days, the party would open the boxes.

“We will sort out the relevant suggestions and the demands and send the
same to our central leadership for their inclusion in our
election manifesto,” Tigga added.

Partha Sarathi Ghosh, the president of Malda South (organisational) district of the BJP, said the boxes would be placed in public places in all 12 Assembly segments of the district.

“We will start placing the boxes from Saturday,” he said.

BJP leaders in Siliguri are also planning a similar initiative.

The Trinamul Congress said the suggestion boxes were a ploy by the BJP to mislead people.

“The BJP is trying to mislead people as its MPs have not done anything for north Bengal. The BJP is known as a party that makes hollow promises. Voters wouldn’t believe that the BJP will consider their suggestions and include them in the manifesto,” said Mridul Goswami, a state secretary of Trinamul in Alipurduar.

Additional reporting by Soumya De Sarkar in Malda