A group of BJP supporters has announced Satyajit Majumdar as an Independent candidate for the July 10 Bagda Assembly byelection in protest against the party’s decision to nominate an “outsider” for the seat.

On Monday afternoon, the BJP had announced Binoy Biswas as the candidate for the Bagda bypoll. Agitated local BJP workers immediately held a meeting on the Bagda High School grounds and raised objections to the candidature of a person who doesn’t belong to the constituency. They demanded the withdrawal of the “outsider” candidate within 24 hours and demanded a “son of the soil” as the nominee.

“Previously, an outsider candidate had been given nomination. But after he had won, he switched over to another party. We don’t want a repetition of the past,” a senior BJP leader at Bagda said. The leader was referring to Biswajit Das, who had won from Bagda on a BJP ticket in 2021 but defected to the Trinamool Congress.

Das, who contested in the Lok Sabha election from Bongaon on a TMC ticket, vacated the Bagda seat, leading to the byelection. Das was defeated by the BJP’s Shantanu Thakur in the Lok Sabha polls.

After the deadline ended on Tuesday evening, the rebel group decided to put up local school teacher Satyajit Majumdar as an Independent candidate. Majumdar — an RSS volunteer and a resident of Malipota in the Bagda Assembly segment — led a rally of BJP workers at Helencha on Wednesday.

“The party has nominated a candidate and it cannot be changed. The symbol is more important than the person. Those who are loyal soldiers of the BJP will work for the party’s candidate. The party will not bow down to rebels,” the North-24 district organisational president of the BJP, Debadas Mondal, said.

The voice of dissent has been growing louder in the BJP since its debacle in the Lok Sabha polls. On Wednesday, the party showcaused Diamond Harbour BJP candidate Abhijit Das (Bobby) for allegedly organising protests against the central fact-finding team that had come to investigate the post-election ‘terror’ situation in Amtala on Tuesday evening.

The BJP fact-finding team ran into protests from party members who accused that district president Abhijit Sardar without protecting them from violence was colluding with Trinamool Congress.

In the showcause letter dated June 18, Das was accused of not attending an important meeting (meeting with the central fact-finding team), preventing victims of post-election attacks from attending that meeting, and indulging the party workers to stage a protest in front of the central leadership.

Bobby, who is also temporarily suspended, pleaded innocence. “I went to the dentist at that time and was not present on the spot. Later I came to know that the shelter-less villagers who were staying in a private lodge just a few yards away from the district BJP office wanted the BJP team to listen to their grievances,” he said

Despite the party’s efforts to adopt a strong stance, the saffron ecosystem has been grappling with internal divisions since the Lok Sabha election results, with senior BJP leaders pointing fingers at each other for the electoral setback.