Bengal BJP prioritises grassroots candidates over celebrities for Assembly polls
Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit in West Bengal is concentrating on selecting names for potential candidates in the Assembly elections in a more systematic way, emphasising individuals from the grassroots rather than public figures, particularly those from the silver screen world.
A state committee member of the BJP said that this focus on recommending candidates from the grassroots level rather than celebrities has been prompted by bitter lessons learnt from the previous Assembly elections in the state, especially in 2021.
“Several celebrities joined our party before the 2021 elections, and many of them were selected as candidates. But since the day the results of the elections were announced, and these celebrity candidates were defeated, most of them completely disassociated themselves from the party, with many even immediately shifting to the ruling Trinamool Congress. This time, the selection of names for recommendations to the party high command is taking place silently but in a more organised manner, without giving any kind of hype to that exercise,” the state committee member said.
At the same time, he added, this time, the state unit of the party will send two separate lists for each of the 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal to the party’s leadership. One list will have three names of preferred candidates, and the other will have three names who are not preferred at all as candidates.
“The state unit might also give short explanatory remarks about the three names in the ‘preferred’ list and the three names in the ‘not preferred’ list. But the final decision on the selection of the candidate will be taken by the party high command only,” said the state committee member.
At the same time, the West Bengal unit of the BJP is now making an effort to understand public sentiment ahead of the upcoming state elections and before finalising its election manifesto.
Last week, the state unit of the party launched the ‘Sankalp Patra Paramarsha Yatra’ (Manifesto Consultation Drive) programme. Under this programme, drop boxes to seek people’s opinions on the election manifesto will be placed in 1,000 locations across West Bengal.