KOLKATA: The Bengal BJP may pack its candidate list with some known faces in a bid to make an impact on the electorate and try to get back some of its lost grounds in the city in the civic polls. BJP Rajya Sabha member Rupa Ganguly and former MLA Baishali Dalmiya are some names doing the rounds.
The party has a Plan B ready, too. Fearing “Trinamool hegemony” in civic polls, Bengal BJP leaders want to take the issue to the highest judicial level like it did in 2018 rural polls. Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar plans to take the holding of isolated municipal polls in Kolkata to the Supreme Court though the matter is pending in the high court.
“We will contest in all of the 144 wards. There are around 5,000 applications lying with us now. A list will be prepared after going through each of the names,” said a Bengal BJP leader. A team led by state vice presidents Arjun Singh and Pratap Banerjee and campaign in charge Dinesh Trivedi held a meeting on Thursday evening to discuss the proposals.
According to sources, a few names like Rupa Ganguly and Baishali Dalmiya are making rounds. Ganguly, a Rajya Sabha MP, was approached by state BJP leaders earlier too. “She could not file her nomination last time because her name was not on Kolkata voter list. Later her name was registered,” a BJP leader said. Ganguly’s term as the RS member is scheduled to be over by October next year. For a long term she had also led the women’s wing of the BJP in Bengal.
Baishali Dalmiya, former Bally MLA, had contested from Bally in 2021 assembly polls but lost to Trinamool. A resident of Biren Roy Road, Thakurpukur, Dalmiya has been seen at a number of political programmes by BJP. She is also the co-incharge of the election campaign committee for the KMC.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/bjp-may-bank-on-known-faces/articleshow/87918105.cms
