The BJP candidate for Uttarpara Assembly seat on Monday went to a dissident’s house to prevent her from filing nomination as an Independent.
Although the efforts did yield desired result at Uttarpara, problems persisted in several other seats across the state.
Krishna Bhattacharya had decided to contest as an Independent as she was upset with the nomination of Trinamul turncoat Prabir Ghoshal.
“About 9.45 in the morning, Prabirda came to my house with his men and requested me not to file my nomination. He stayed back for almost two hours till past 12 in the afternoon,” Bhattacharya said. “I almost felt gheraoed in at own house,” she added.
Not only Ghoshal, the party’s Serampore organisational district president Shyamal Bose had called Bhattacharya on Monday morning to persuade her from going ahead with the nomination. Later, when Bhattacharya went to the local court for a personal work, she found representatives of the party’s national leadership waiting for her there.
“A close aide to UP’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya was there. Mauryaji himself spoke to me on phone and asked me not to go against the party,” Bhattacharya said.
By day fall, the cumulative efforts of the party bore fruit. Bhattacharya, along with BJP leader Shyamal Bose, told the press that she would not contest as an Independent.
“Krishnadi is with us. I’ve spoken to her, Prabirda had gone to her house, even national leaders called her up because she is an important person |for us,” Bose told The Telegraph.
While the party has been able to suppress a possible dissidence in Uttarpara, all is not quite well in the Matua front for them. Party MP and Matua Mahasangha chief Shantanu Thakur is apparently unhappy over the party’s decision to overlook his choices while fielding candidates in 30 Matua dominated assemblies.
On Sunday night, Shantanu called upon Union home minister Amit Shah — who was in Calcutta for the release of the party’s manifesto — and requested him to let him decide the candidates for Bagda, Gaighata and Bongan North.
“If Shantanu doesn’t get candidates of his own choice, his hold in the party and the community loosens. He doesn’t want that,” a BJP source said. “Amitji has asked him to contest himself in one of the seats. But he is unwilling to do so. He wants to field his brother, father and wife from each of these seats,” this source added.
Manjul Krishna Thakur, Shantanu’s father, met the press on Sunday and said the BJP had deprived the Matuas.
“We had organised several massive rallies under the leadership of MP Shantanu Thakur. Lakhs of Matua members participated in these rallies. Why will our people still remain deprived?” Manjul Krishna had asked.
Bengal BJP’s Scheduled Caste Morcha president and Congress turncoat Dulal Bar is the sitting MLA from Bagda. It is unlikely that he will be replaced for the sake of Shantanu, BJP sources added.
In Hooghly’s Chandernagore, a dissident leader and former secretary of BJP’s state unit Tandra Bhattacharya has filed nomination as an independent candidate on Monday. The party’s official candidate for the seat is RSS backed Deepanjan Guha. However, a section of local party leaders termed Guha was an “outsider” and wanted him replaced.
Posters alleging that BJP’s Galsi candidate Tapan Bagdi is an accused in a rape case were put up in East Burdwan’s Panagarh and Budbud on Monday. Bagdi, however, saw a Trinamul hand behind these posters. Reacting to these allegations, Trinamul sources in Burdwan claimed that this was another example of the ongoing conflict between old and new BJP leaders over distribution of tickets.
Several agitators gathered in front of the BJP’s election office in Calcutta’s Hastings demanding the removal of the party’s official candidate from Calcutta Port seat, Awad Kishore Gupta. In Birbhum’s Murarai, a group of BJP old-timers agitated demanding the replacement of the party’s candidate from that seat.
If protest by party supporters was not enough for the saffron camp, Trinamul supporters agitated in front of Union minister and BJP’s Tollygunge candidate Babul Supriyo’s car when he reached the South 24 Parganas DM’s office in Alipore to file his nomination.
