BJP veterans are sitting at home crying while the party is now run by some CPM harmads (mercenaries) and chor-chorta cheatingbaaj (thieves and cheats) from the Trinamul Congress, Mamata Banerjee said on Friday.

As night fell, Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh tweeted: “Nation first, party second and self last.”

Marked by Mamata’s ridicule and Ghosh’s highfalutin exhortation, heartburn in the BJP ranks against the candidature of turncoats continued to rage, overshadowing the narrative on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign trip to Kharagpur.

“The Prime Minister is coming to Kharagpur on Saturday for a rally. But people are talking more about the protests in the party,” a senior BJP leader said.

State BJP chief Ghosh had earlier in the day expressed confidence that the protests would die down soon. “Many from the BJP and other parties had aspired to get party tickets. The party has nominated only those who have a chance to win. I want everyone to work together to help the BJP form the government in Bengal,” he said, only to tweet in the evening the desired sequence of priorities for an ideal BJP supporter.

Mamata had struck during the day. “Remember, those who are betrayers, Mir Jafars, are the BJP’s candidates today. Old BJP hands are today sitting at home, crying. Some CPM harmads and some chor-chorta cheatingbaaj from Trinamul have gone there and are now calling the shots,” the chief minister told a campaign rally in East Midnapore’s Egra.

The nomination of Trinamul turncoats such as Baishali Dalmiya from Bally, Col. Deeptangshu Chowdhury from Durgapur East, Tanmoy Ghosh from Bishnupur and Ranjan Baidya from Sonarpur North has exploded in the face of the BJP.

On Friday, BJP old-timers protested at Belur’s Rajen Seth Lane and claimed that MLA Dalmiya was an “outsider” who had done precious little for the constituency in the last five years.

In Durgapur, angry party workers raised slogans against Col. Chowdhury and agitated in front of the district party office. “The choice of the candidate shows the party’s nexus with Trinamul,” said dissident BJP leader Kalyan Majumdar.

Col. Chowdhury refused to pay heed to the protests. “A few people are protesting, but the majority in the party is with me,” he said while kicking off his campaign on Friday.

Mamata Banerjee at the rally at Pataspur in East Midnapore on Friday Telegraph picture

In Bankura’s Bishnupur, posters accusing BJP candidate Tanmoy Ghosh of being involved in “multiple scams” came up on Friday morning across the town. Although the source of these posters could not be identified, the BJP saw the hand of Trinamul. Local Trinamul leaders, however, said the posters were a fallout of factionalism in the BJP.

Tanmoy Ghosh, who was a member of the Trinamul-run board of coordinators of the Bishnupur municipality, joined the BJP a few days ago.

Swatting away the allegations of his involvement in corruption, Tanmoy Ghosh claimed that Trinamul was staring at defeat and so was trying to defame him. “People of Bishnupur are aware of my clean image,” he said.

But Joymal Ghar, the town president of Bishnupur Trinamul, said: “This is the fallout of the fight going on between the old and the new BJP.”

The BJP headquarters in Calcutta was also singed by the discontent. Posters demanding the removal of Baidya as the BJP’s candidate for Sonarpur North were put up in front of the office.

One of these posters accused Trinamul defector Baidya of misappropriating panchayat funds during his tenure as a zilla parishad member in South 24-Parganas. “Ranjan Baidya became a BJP candidate paying Rs 30 lakh. We won’t stand him,” a poster read.

Similar posters have been put up in front of the party’s election office at Hastings, which has been the venue of protests by BJP supporters since March 14.

BJP sources said the unrest was not only embarrassing the party but also hurting campaigning.

“The first phase of polls is just eight days away and our leaders are busy handling protests.… Poll preparedness has been severely affected,” a source said.

At Sandeshkhali, BJP candidate Bhaskar Sardar did not find the path any smoother.

Sardar was allegedly roughed up by party activists when he arrived at a BJP office at Nazat in North 24-Parganas. They asked Sardar to leave and quit the poll battle. When he tried to reason with the supporters, Sardar was heckled in front of the BJP’s Basirhat organisational district vice-president, Arup Das.

“The candidate is an outsider. He is from Nazat but stays in Calcutta and has no connection with the grassroots,” Das said, justifying the anger.

Protests did not spare BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar, who is fighting the polls from Santipur in Nadia. Demanding his replacement, supporters said the BJP should repose faith in those who had helped the party grow in the region.

In Nadia’s Chakdah, BJP supporters ransacked a party office, burnt flags and buntings and damaged furniture while protesting the nomination of CPM turncoat Bankim Ghosh. Labelling Haringhata resident Bankim Ghosh as an outsider, they wanted a local leader to replace him.

“Dedicated party workers toiled hard to build the support base of the party but the top leadership is giving the seats to Trinamul deserters almost everywhere. We will not accept this,” said an angry BJP worker as he set party flags on fire in Nadia’s Ranaghat.

Unable to accept the “dumping of Trinamul and CPM turncoats” as candidates, 17 office-bearers of the BJP’s Nadia south organisational district wrote to state president Ghosh, informing him of their decision to resign.

Confirming the resignations, the president of the BJP’s Nadia district committee, Ashok Chakraborty, said: “Party workers are pained and are unwilling to accept the decision of the leadership.”