BJP's Early Campaign Plan in Bengal Hindered by Delay in Candidate Announcement

Due to a delay in announcing the candidates, the BJP's plan to launch an early campaign for the Lok Sabha elections in Bengal has been derailed in 23 constituencies, particularly in six seats that the party won in 2019.

The BJP has nominated candidates for 19 of the state's 42 seats thus far. All 42 candidates were named by the Trinamul Congress.

Disappointed with the postponement, a number of BJP leaders from north and south Bengal claimed the party was lagging behind Trinamul in the 23-segment campaign.

"Trinamul has commenced full-scale campaigning and named candidates for all 42 seats. A BJP leader in Jhargram, one of the 18 seats in Bengal which the party won in 2019, stated, "We are just waiting to know the names of our nominee, while our colleagues in nearby districts like Bankura and Purulia have been busy campaigning with their candidates."

The BJP unveiled their candidates for 20 Lok Sabha seats on March 2. But within 24 hours of the announcement, the party pulled Pawan Singh, the Bhojpuri musician and actor, as its contender for Asansol due to Trinamul's criticism of his misogynistic remarks and callous allusions to Bengali women in his songs.

A top BJP official claims that as part of its goal to launch an early campaign in the state, the party intended to reveal the nominations for each of the 42 seats. Amit Shah, the Union home minister, had set a goal of 35 seats in Bengal. On the other hand, Bengal BJP leaders were instructed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to concentrate on winning all 42 of the state's seats.

According to a source, the biggest embarrassment for the BJP was the tardiness in disclosing the names of the contenders in the six constituencies where the party had sitting Members of Parliament: Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Raiganj, Jhargram, Burdwan-Durgapur, and Barrackpore.

A segment of the BJP, including its leaders and activists, as well as its allies, such as the GNLF in the Darjeeling hills, are not happy with the delay in announcing the candidates for three north Bengali Lok Sabha seats.

The inability of the BJP to announce a candidate for the Darjeeling Parliament seat has infuriated the residents of the Terai and the Darjeeling hills. They're also a little confused. A youth leader of the GNLF named Sandeep Limbu stated, "We demand that the ticket be granted to sitting Darjeeling BJP MP Raju Bista as we are satisfied with his work for the region."

According to a BJP leader, there were several choices for the twenty-odd seats, hence the party has not released the names of the nominees. He cited Arjun Singh, the party's MP for Barrackpore, as an example. Singh joined Trinamul in 2022 and raised the BJP flag in New Delhi on Friday. In the next several hours, if nothing changes, the BJP will field Singh from Barrackpore once more.

Along with Singh, the BJP also attracted Diyendu Adhikari, the present Tamluk MP and younger brother of Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari.

Singh finally consented to run on a BJP ticket after Trinamul rejected his nomination. Singh is the greatest option, even though we were looking for a fresh face. The Barrackpore problem has now been settled," the leader declared.

He has stated that two names have surfaced for the Darjeeling seat: current MP Raju Bista and former foreign secretary H.V. Shringla. In the majority of the 23 seats, the party has made corrections. He continued, "The candidates will be revealed very soon—by Saturday or Sunday.

"We have secured seats in Raiganj, Darjeeling, and Jalpaiguri with respectable margins. So why is the party revealing the names so late? Even if we had lost those seats in 2019, the wait would still have had some merit. A BJP official in Jalpaiguri remarked, "It's interesting that the candidate has been announced for Malda South, the only seat in north Bengal where we lost last time."

The BJP leader in Hooghly expressed his displeasure that the candidate for Arambagh, which the saffron camps saw as a "sure seat," had not yet been announced by the party.

"Very soon, the party will reveal the nominations for each of the 23 seats. The people of Bengal are prepared to vote for us, so the delay in naming the candidates won't matter," main spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member for the Bharatiya Janata Party Samik Bhattacharya said.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.