Smart Choice Of Candidates In BJP’s New List Gives Party A Fighting Edge In Bengal

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cadres in Bengal are enthused by the choice of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in the state.

The party announced its second tranche of candidates for 19 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal on Sunday (24 March). 

The BJP has, so far, announced its candidates for 38 of the 42 seats in Bengal. The list, say political analysts, reveals that a lot of deliberation and strategic planning have gone into the selection of candidates for all the seats. 

A few names stand out among the second list of 19 candidates for Bengal. One of them is Rekha Patra. She has been in the forefront of the agitation against land-grab and exploitation of women by Trinamool strongman Sheikh Shahjahan and his associates at Sandeshkhali. 

Patra, who has herself alleged sexual exploitation by Trinamool functionaries, resisted pressure from not only Trinamool functionaries, but also police and state officials to continue her protests in Sandeshkhali. 

By giving her the party ticket from Basirhat (Sandeshkahli falls within this Lok Sabha constituency), the BJP has signalled its intent to make the ‘shame of Sandeshkhali’ a major issue in the elections. 

BJP leaders told Swarajya that the gutsy lady (Patra), who has also turned out to be a powerful orator, will campaign in many other parts of the state. 

The BJP has fielded the ‘Rajmata’ of the Krishnanagar royal family, Amrita Roy, to take on Mahua Moitra who was expelled from the Lok Sabha for allegedly taking money and material gifts to pose questions in the house. 

Wife of retired airline executive Saumish Chandra Roy, who is a descendant of the Krishnanagar royal dynasty founder Maharaja Krishna Chandra Roy, ‘Rajmata’ Amrita Roy is a fashion consultant by profession. 

Articulate and refined, the ‘Rajmata’ studied at La Martiniere and Loreto House in Kolkata and is seen as more than a match for Mahua Moitra who is often perceived as loud and crass. Also, the Rajmata is a local while Moitra is an outsider. 

The BJP has fielded prominent lawyer Kabir Shankar Bose from Serampore to take on his former father-in-law, Kalyan Banerjee, who has been renominated from the seat by the Trinamool Congress. 

Kalyan Banerjee won the Serampore Lok Sabha seat thrice (2009, 2014 and 2019). He is one of the most vocal defendants of his party colleagues and is a trenchant critic of the BJP. 

Bose, an accomplished lawyer, is a sober but forceful speaker who never uses cuss words (unlike his former father-in-law) and is quite popular among the people of Serampore. 

Former Trinamool legislator Tapas Roy, who resigned from Mamata Banerjee’s party and the state assembly (read this) earlier this month, has been fielded by the BJP from the Kolkata Uttar (North) Lok Sabha seat. 

Roy, an old-timer in the Trinamool, who was till recently a close associate of Mamata Banerjee, is well-known for his organisational skills and has a large support base. He also commands the respect and loyalty of many senior Trinamool functionaries and grassroots level workers. 

Tapas Roy will pose a tough challenge to Trinamool’s Sudip Bandopadhyay who has represented this seat since 2009 when it was formed by merging the Kolkata North-West and Kolkata North-East Lok Sabha seats. Bandopadhyay had won the Kolkata North-West seat twice in 1998 and 1999. 

Tapas Roy left the Trinamool over differences with Bandopadhyay, who is widely perceived to be ineffective. Roy is expected to benefit from the considerable anti-incumbency against Bandopadhyay. 

Another smart move by the BJP was to renominate Barrackpore strongman Arjun Singh from the seat. Singh, who started his political career with the Congress as a councillor in the Bhatpara municipality (Bhatpara falls in Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency) in 1995, joined the Trinamool Congress in 2001. 

He won the Bhatpara assembly seat four times since 2001 and was the president of the Trinamool’s ‘Hindi cell’. 

Singh left the Trinamool and joined the BJP in March 2019, and was fielded by the saffron party from Barrackpore. He won the seat by defeating the Trinamool’s Dinesh Trivedi. 

But Singh returned to the Trinamool in May 2022, reportedly due to threats and intimidation from the ruling party in the state. He had allegedly been threatened with fake criminal cases. 

But he rejoined the BJP again earlier this month and has been given the party ticket from his stronghold. 

The BJP leadership had to ask local party leaders and functionaries in Barrackpore to bury their opposition to Singh, who they consider a turncoat. Singh, on his part, has assured the BJP leadership that he will resist pressure from the Trinamool and will not switch sides any more. 

Singh’s re-nomination from Barrackpore reflects the BJP’s willingness to be flexible and practical. Singh is a strong candidate and commands a loyal following among most of the Hindi-speaking people who form a decisive segment of the electorate there. 

The BJP has also done well by renominating Raju Bista from Darjeeling and Jayanta Roy from Jalpaiguri. 

The delay in announcing their names from the two seats had triggered considerable disquiet in the two constituencies in North Bengal. Both Bista and Roy are popular in their constituencies and repeatedly raised issues pertaining to their constituencies in the Lok Sabha. 

Another entrant from the Trinamool and a popular politician, Silabhadra Dutta, has been fielded from the Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat. Dutta, who won the Barrackpore assembly seat in 2011 and 2016 as the Trinamool’s nominee, was a loyalist of Mukul Roy and quit the Trinamool in December 2020. 

But unlike some other Trinamool turncoats, Dutta did not leave the BJP after the 2021 assembly elections. He has been working for the BJP and has helped the saffron party grow organisational roots in the Barrackpore-Dum Dum belt.

Dutta is considered to be a strong match for the aged and ailing Trinamool veteran Saugata Roy who has been winning the Dum Dum seat since 2009. There is considerable anti-incumbency against Roy. 

As was widely speculated, the BJP has given the party ticket to former Calcutta High Court judge, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, from Tamluk. Gangopadhyay was seen as a no-nonsense crusader against Trinamool’s corruption and had ordered probes by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate into many scams in the state. 

Tamluk is a stronghold of Suvendu Adhikari’s family and Gangopadhyay’s chances of defeating his Trinamool rival Debangshu Bhattacharya are strong. Bhattacharya’s only qualification is that he writes catchy poems and songs praising Mamata Banerjee. 

Expecting to reap benefits from notifying the rules on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the BJP has fielded Matua leaders Asim Sarkar and Swapan Majumdar from Bardhaman Purba (East) and Barasat Lok Sabha seats. 

Sarkar is the sitting BJP MLA from Haringhata and Majumdar the MLA from Bongaon (South). Fielding them, and some other Matua leaders also, is expected to cement Matua support for the BJP. 

Also, the BJP has not shied away from action against even its senior functionaries. A case in point: former state president Dilip Ghosh who has been shifted from Medinipur (which he won in 2019) to Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat. 

The BJP’s internal surveys and feedback from cadres in Medinipur indicated considerable resentment towards Ghosh.

Ghosh has thus been shifted to a safe seat (Bardhaman-Durgapur) which was won by (BJP’s) S S Ahluwalia in 2019. Dilip Ghosh will take on Kirti Azad in his new seat. 

All this reflects smart thinking and planning on the part of the BJP. All eyes are now on the BJP’s next list of candidates for the Diamond Harbour, Jhargram, Asansol and Birbhum Lok Sabha seats. 

The BJP’s Kunar Hembram won the Jhargram seat in 2019, but has recently quit the party and resigned from the Lok Sabha citing personal reasons. 

Asansol was won by the BJP’s Babul Supriyo in 2014 and 2019. But Supriyo resigned from the BJP after he was dropped from the Union cabinet due to poor performance as a minister. 

In the by-elections held in 2022, former BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha who had joined the Trinamool, won the seat. Sinha has been fielded this time too by the Trinamool. 

The BJP announced the name of popular Bhojpuri actor Pawan Singh as its candidate from Asansol this time, but the latter backed out. The party is yet to zero in on a candidate for Asansol. 

Birbhum was a Trinamool stronghold, but the arrest of its strongman Anubrata Mandal, for his involvement in the cattle smuggling and illegal mining scams, has weakened the Trinamool there. 

Infighting among local Trinamool leaders and erosion of the Trinamool’s image due to the scams it has been tainted with are expected to favour the BJP in Birbhum. 

Diamond Harbour remains a stronghold of the Trinamool and of Abhishek Banerjee. The BJP is expected to name a strong candidate who can put up a tough fight in Diamond Harbour. 

Also read: 

BJP's Bengal candidates lineup: A seat-by-seat evaluation  

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