The BJP is facing difficulties in finding candidates for the upcoming polls to the Calcutta and Howrah municipal corporations and 110 other civic bodies across Bengal, sources in the party said.

The disinterest among BJP leaders to contest the civic polls comes amid murmurs of a possible cash squeeze from Delhi for the party’s Bengal unit because of the poor show in the Assembly elections and the subsequent bypolls.

Elections to the Calcutta and Howrah municipal corporations are scheduled to be held on December 19. Polls to around 110 other civic bodies are likely to be held early next year.
A senior BJP leader said if the party couldn’t put up candidates in all seats, it would be another face loss after the Assembly poll debacle. “We need around 3,000 to 4,000 people who would contest the polls and we need that fast. The Trinamul Congress’s probable candidates are already in campaign mode. Our people need to establish their identity in their localities,” the BJP leader said.

“However, unlike the Assembly polls where the party received multiple applications from aspiring candidates for a seat, this time, it is the opposite as there is hardly any interest among workers for nomination.”

In the run up to the Assembly polls, application drop boxes were put up at the BJP’s two offices as thousands of people were queuing up seeking nomination. “It was a problem of plenty then.… Now, we are not getting people,” another source said.
According to a veteran BJP councillor, one of the major reasons behind the lack of interest is cash crunch with the state BJP after the splurge it made during the Assembly polls.

“It has been unofficially conveyed that the party’s central unit will not be financing civic poll campaigning.… The cost of campaigning in several wards in Central Calcutta will be more than half a crore rupees. Who will spend that money?” asked the veteran.

“These days, elections are all about money power and more so in the case of civic polls, which require voter management at micro level,” said a BJP source. This person then added that the dominant view in the party is that Trinamul will sweep the civic polls in Calcutta, Howrah and other urban areas.
“If there is a possibility of victory, people spend from their pockets…. But when defeat is almost certain, who will waste money?” asked the source.
Another BJP state functionary, who had unsuccessfully contested the civic polls in 2015, said in the past few years, there was a possibility that the party would win a few wards.

BJP leaders officially denied that the party was facing issues in zeroing in on candidates for the civic polls.

Pratap Banerjee, a state BJP vice-president, said: “We have already received several applications from people who want to contest the civic polls. We have asked them to contact their respective organisational districts.”

But Banerjee did admit that the possibility of Delhi funding the candidates for the civic polls was thin.