Growing dissidence over party nominations in at least two Assembly seats in Nadia has nearly stalled Trinamul’s campaign in those constituencies.

Sources said sections of the local Trinamul leadership had been showing “utter reluctance” to undertake poll campaigning for candidates nominated for Kalyani (SC) and Chapra seats and demanded that they be replaced.

On March 5, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced Ramendranath Biswas and Rukbanur Rahaman as party candidates for the Kalyani (SC) and Chapra Assembly constituencies, respectively. Both Biswas and Rahaman are two-time MLAs and are known for their proximity to the chief minister.

However, the announcement of their nominations angered local party leaders and workers last week. The dissidence over the nomination was violent in Chapra, where party workers in large numbers publicly burned tyres and blocked traffic on Karimpur-Krishnagar road demanding the nomination of local leader Zeber Seikh. In Kalyani, the local leadership preferred to protest in silence skipping campaigning programmes of the official nominee.

“Since the dissidence has remained unresolved with the top leadership yet to intervene, rebels are all set to nominate Zeber Seikh to fight the polls as an Independent in Chapra. They have also begun drawing wall graffiti seeking votes for Zeber,” said a source.

“The nomination of Rukbanur has hurt us since he is never available to serve any purpose. We all wanted a local person to fight from Chapra. Hope the party will respect this sentiment and act accordingly,” Zeber Seikh said.

In Kalyani, sources said, party nominee Biswas having a difficult time as a major section of the local leadership had been refusing to campaign for him. On Monday, he had to call off a party workshop scheduled at the Ritwik Sadan auditorium.

On Tuesday, at least three prominent leaders, including Kalyani town committee president Arup Mukherjee, Gayeshpur town president Sukanta Chatterjee and Kalyani block president Pankaj Singh skipped an internal organisational meeting called by Biswas.

Party workers have been refused to draw wall graffiti seeking votes for Biswas, whereas the door-to-door campaigns are yet to begin.

A local leader, on condition of anonymity, said: “Ramenbabu has become a matter of embarrassment to the party. He has little connection with the people. We have appealed to the top Trinamul leadership to replace him. The IPAC team was also apprised about him being an inactive MLA. It will be tough for him to win the Kalyani seat, where we had trailed the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.”

Talks about Biswas being replaced with a new candidate started doing the rounds on Wednesday, but most senior party leaders in the district did not wish to comment on the issue.

Asked about the issue, Kalyani town president Arup Mukherjee said: “I have heard Ramenbabu has been directed to return the party symbol, but I am yet to receive any official communication in this regard.”

A senior state-level Trinamul leader, who did not want to be named, said: “We know about the problems in Kalyani and Chapra. We will hold talks to sort out the issue.”

“There is little scope of replacing the candidate in Chapra. But about Kalyani, Mamata Banerjee will take the final call.”

Biswas, however, appeared calm and refused to comment on the controversy surrounding him.

“Let the people say whatever they feel. I have no comment to offer,” he said.