Union home minister Amit Shah reportedly pulled up Bengal BJP leaders at a late-night meeting here on Monday over the growing discontent among party workers at the grassroots level over selection of certain candidates.

Sources in the BJP said the announcement of candidates for 63 of the 75 Assembly seats, which would go to polls in the third and fourth phases, on Sunday had led to a public show of dissent over a few names and the inability of the state leadership to control the anger of workers had made Shah furious.

“Amitji pulled up almost all the leaders present at the meeting because he believed the discontent was over the names that had been suggested by the BJP’s functionaries at the Bengal unit. There has been no controversy over names finalised through surveys conducted by private agencies appointed by Amitji. All the uproar is over the candidates who were suggested by state leaders,” the BJP source said.

Shah, who had gone to Assam after addressing two rallies in Bengal on Monday, was supposed to leave Guwahati for Delhi. However, amid reports of protests against the list of candidates coming from crucial districts like Hooghly and South 24-Parganas, Shah rescheduled his itinerary and returned to Calcutta to hold a meeting with the state BJP office-bearers.

The meeting was attended by BJP’s national chief J.P. Nadda, state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, party’s Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya and co-minder Amit Malviya, national general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santosh, his deputy Shivprakash, Santosh’s Bengal counterpart Amitava Chakraborty and BJP’s Tarakeswar candidate Swapan Dasgupta.

Sources said the meeting was so crucial that Nadda, who was supposed to land in Bengal on Tuesday morning for his scheduled public meetings, was called by Shah on Monday itself.

Santosh was also asked to fly down from Delhi to join the meeting. Apart from discussing the pressing issue of discontent over candidates, Shah also met representatives of different departments of the state unit and it went on till 3.15 on Tuesday morning.

When asked about the development, Ghosh rejected claims that Shah had rebuked the state BJP chief and his team. However, he acknowledged that the issue of discontent over a few names had come up at the meeting.

“He enquired about the places where our workers are protesting,” Ghosh told The Telegraph. “Some people thought they would get tickets and finally they, didn’t. That has led to some discontent,” Ghosh added.

A BJP office-bearer said Shah was angry with the state leaders because he felt they did not take the district functionaries into confidence before deciding on the names. He has also asked the leaders to speak to five representatives from each Assembly seat where there was unrest and contain the outburst. A detailed report has been asked to be sent to Delhi.

A key BJP member and Trinamul turncoat Mukul Roy was absent from the meeting. A state BJP leader said Shah was purportedly unhappy with Roy over the selection of candidates in a few seats.

“Mukulda had pushed for the candidature of Rabindranath Bhattacharya and Samiran Mitra, in Singur and Haripal, respectively. The common workers have rejected both the names and hence, Amitji is upset with Mukulda,” a party source said.

Both Bhattacharya and Mitra are Trinamul turncoats. A section of BJP leaders was also unhappy with Bhattacharya’s candidature since he is 89-years-old.

Shah called out Vijayvargiya also for similar reasons. Vijayvargiya had been party to Roy’s endeavour in helping Trinamul turncoats get BJP tickets for the 2021 polls.

The nomination of Deepanjan Guha, a BJP state office-bearer and member of the RSS, has also drawn flak from the supporters for being an outsider.

Posters had come up against his nomination in Chandernagore on Monday. Multiple sources said Guha was the choice of a national BJP leader who was also present at the meeting. Shah rebuked the leader for being unable to foresee the situation.

The list was announced on Sunday and protests against some of these names continued even on Tuesday. BJP supporters from 13 Assembly constituencies — Singur, Khanakul, Goghat, Bagnan, Joynagar, Canning West, Kultali, Diamond Harbour, Kulpi, Mandirbazar, Goghat, Satgachhia and Magrahat — agitated in front of the party office at Hastings in Calcutta on Tuesday.

Later, a team of representatives went to the office to meet BJP leaders and submit a deputation.

At a point, police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the mob. BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya, however, condemned the role of the police.

Ten agitators were arrested and a policeman was injured when the protestors allegedly hurled bricks at the law enforcers.

“The agitation by our workers is unwelcome. No candidates will be replaced. However, the police shouldn’t have beaten up peaceful protestors,” Bhattacharya said.

Ghosh and other state leaders will be in Delhi on Wednesday for the central election committee meeting, where the names for the rest of the seats will be discussed. The issue of discontent is likely to come up at this meeting that is to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well.

B.L. Santosh on Tuesday met BJP workers from the party’s Calcutta zone. Sunil Bansal, who is currently in charge of the zone, was also at the meeting. Since Trinamul turncoats Sovan Chatterjee and Baisakhi Banerjee who were assigned the responsibility of the Calcutta zone quit the party over discontent for not being fielded from the seats of their choice, Santosh and Bansal took stock of the zone’s affairs themselves.