BJP’s Bengal minder Sunil Bansal has asked state leaders to shift to the safety of the party's district offices the candidates who are facing alleged threats from the Trinamul Congress to withdraw nominations for the July 8 rural polls.
Bansal’s suggestion, according to BJP sources, reflects the party’s organisational inadequacies against those of other Opposition forces such as the CPM and the Congress, whose supporters have refused to flee the field even after alleged persecution by the ruling dispensation.
“We have been asked to shift our candidates who face threats from Trinamul to the safety of the district party offices or elsewhere. We understand Sunilji has said this to ensure their security. But the question is why will our workers not be encouraged to fight it out?” asked a state committee member of the BJP.
“If the CPM and the Congress with no MLAs can show the courage to do so, why will we not be able to do the same with 70 MLAs and 16 MPs?”
The BJP state committee member was present at a virtual meeting of the party on Friday, where Bansal issued the instruction.
On Monday, Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar and general secretary Jagannath Chatterjee took 30 candidates from South 24-Parganas to Raj Bhavan. These candidates were mostly from Diamond Harbour, Canning and Magrahat East and allegedly faced continuous threats from the ruling party. The BJP delegation sought the governor’s intervention.
Around the same time, CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty led a crowd of around 200 people to the Diamond Harbour subdivision office. Around 50 people in the crowd had allegedly suffered Trinamul’s atrocities. Some have been forced to withdraw their candidature while others have been assaulted.
BJP sources pointed out those two instances to show how a similar problem at the same location had been dealt with by the two parties. “What can the governor do? He can reprimand the administration at the most. But the actual work will have to be done by local offices and that is where the CPM went. The CPM did not bring the problem to Calcutta,” a BJP source said.
