Kolkata: BJP president Nitin Nabin on Tuesday began his deliberations with party netas and workers in Kolkata before the final voter list publication. The meeting came in the backdrop of yet another spate of protests from disgruntled supporters over the choice of “unacceptable candidates” at the party headquarters in Salt Lake.The trouble reached a stage when state leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari had to intervene and pacify agitating party workers.The protests started in the afternoon demanding a change of candidates in several constituencies, including Balagarh and Baduria. In Balagarh, BJP has fielded Sumana Sarkar. Party workers alleged that Sarkar, who had joined BJP from Trinamool a few months back, was behind tortures faced by veteran and grassroots workers. The protesters also demanded change of candidates in Basirhat and Minakhan.Discontent over BJP nominations started to intensify after the release of the second list of 111 candidates. Protests and unhappiness surfaced across districts including Alipurduar, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas and Kolkata.In several constituencies, such as Baishnabnagar (Malda) and Mal (Jalpaiguri), protesters rejected nominees and labelled them as “outsiders”. Supporters from Beleghata, Jaynagar, Howrah and Entally earlier staged sit-ins and threatened to boycott the polls if candidates like Partha Choudhary or Priyanka Tibrewal were not replaced. Discontent among workers over Hingalganj BJP candidate Rekha Patra also came to light.Meanwhile, Nabin asked BJP workers and functionaries to reach out to people with “micro-level planning” for every booth. “Nabin has come to Bengal with the preparation to mould the party’s election campaign. He said that the party will leave no stone unturned this time,” a Bengal BJP neta said. Nabin asked state leaders and functionaries to intensify the campaign with a special focus on constituencies where the party lagged in the 2021 assembly elections.Assessing a potential rift in a section of the rank and file, Nabin spoke extensively on booth management and a strategy to intensify electoral campaigns. While Nabin met state functionaries on Tuesday, he will hold a special session with some senior netas on Wednesday. He will also meet the election management team and morcha heads.Nabin will hold meetings with workers from nearly 50 constituencies in Nadia and North 24 Parganas. On Tuesday, he met workers from Howrah, Hooghly, Midnapore and Kolkata, which have been witnessing voices of dissent.Paes spotted with BJP netas at hotel: On Tuesday night, Olympic medalist Leander Paes visited a hotel in New Town to meet with senior BJP netas. BJP president Nitin Nabin is also staying at the same hotel. While Paes was seen speaking to BJP netas in the hotel lobby, it is unknown whether he met with Nabin. Neither Paes nor Bengal BJP have commented on the matter. Paes joined Trinamool in Goa in Nov 2021 and became the Bengal Tennis Association president in Nov last year. tnn
