New Delhi: A meeting of the West Bengal unit of the BJP was held at the party's state headquarters in Kolkata over the Bhawanipur by-poll candidate.
The meeting, led by BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, discussed the names of plausible candidates against the chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee in the upcoming by-polls.
According to sources, after a long discussion in the meeting, the names of six candidates were finalised and have been referred to the central leadership.
The six names include former Governor and Senior Leader of Meghalaya and Tripura Tathagata Roy, Actor Rudranil Ghosh, State BJP Vice President Pratap Banerjee, senior leaders Anirban Ganguly, Dinesh Trivedi, lawyer Priyanka Tibrewal and Vishwajeet Sarkar who is BJP activist Abhijeet Sarkar's brother killed in the post-poll violence.
Hours after the West Bengal government announced a cash grant for Durga Puja committees to organise the upcoming festival, the state BJP wrote a letter to the Election Commission (EC) complaining about the move and alleged that it is in violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
Bengal Govt To Provide Rs 50,000 To Each Durga Puja Committee
Earlier on Tuesday, the Bengal government said it would provide a grant of Rs 50,000 as sponsorship to each Durga Puja committee, COVID-19 additional expenditure due to the pandemic.
In a letter to the Election Commission, the BJP said, "We draw your attention to the program organized by the West Bengal government at Netaji Indoor Stadium, which was addressed by the unelected Chief Minister, Smt. Mamata Banerjee. Mamata Banerjee and the chief secretary invited the Durga puja organizing clubs were to the event, announcing cash donations and other facilities by the state government for 36,000 clubs in the state, including 2,500 clubs in the KMC region."
"Very clearly this has been done with only one objective to influence these clubs which play an important role in the electoral process and give inappropriate benefit to the unelected chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Mamata Banerjee, who has already been announced, an AITC candidate for the upcoming by-polls," letter signed by BJP state vice president Pratap Banerjee and Lok Sabha MP Sukant Majumdar readout.
The party urged the Election Commission to "take appropriate steps against the AITC candidate to prevention from participating in the upcoming by-polls".
By-Polls To 3 Assembly Seats
Last week, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that by-elections to three assembly seats in the state, including Bhawanipur in Kolkata, would be held on September 30. The counting of votes will take place on October 3. By-elections will also be held in Jangipur and Samserganj assembly seats.
Mamata Banerjee won from the Bhawanipur assembly constituency in 2011 and 2016. However, in the 2021 assembly elections, she decided to contest from Nandigram.
Even though the TMC returned to power with a victory with 213 of the 292 assembly seats, Mamata Banerjee lost to Suvendu Adhikari by a narrow margin of 1,956 votes.