Amit Shah to choose 294 BJP candidates for 2021 Bengal polls

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will select the candidates for all the assembly constituencies in Bengal. The list of candidates will be finalized on the basis of the report of the five leaders in charge of Bengal. This procedure of selection was used in the last Lok Sabha elections.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, Amit Shah chose the candidates for the Bengal constituencies. As a result of the selection, the BJP won 18 seats which were considered an unprecedented achievement of the BJP in Bengal. Apart from that, the rate gap in a few seats was very small. Amit Shah wants to follow the same path to win the upcoming Bengal polls.

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Central leaders have long been annoyed by the activities of the two warring factions of state president Dilip Ghosh and central vice-president Mukul Roy ahead of the Assembly elections in Bengal. Although the two camps were warned more than once in Delhi, all the problems were not completely resolved. Not only at the state level, but in many places, the battle between the old BJP members and the new BJP members is still going on. 

Without taking any risk in this situation, Amit Shah has given the responsibility of handling the situation to his trusted five foreign leaders Sunil Deodhar, Dushyant Gautam, Binod Tawde, Binod Sonkar, and Harish Dwivedi.

The Bengal BJP judged the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state as separate 'organizational districts'. Accordingly, the whole state has been divided into five parts. Apart from the two Midnapore districts, the Medinipur zone has been formed with the seats of Jhargram, Howrah, and Hooghly districts. Sunil Deodhar is in charge of these districts. 

Dushyanta Gautam is in charge of the Kolkata Zone comprising the Dumdum Lok Sabha constituency of Kolkata, the entire South 24 Parganas, and the North 24 Parganas. 

Binod Tawde is in charge of the new island zone comprising Murshidabad, Nadia, and the rest of the North 24 Parganas. 

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Binod Sonkar is in charge of the Radhabanga zone comprising Purulia, Burdwan, Bankura, and Birbhum districts. 

BJP's all-India secretary, Harish Dwivedi is in charge of North Bengal. 

The concerned leaders have already met in the first four zones. It is also reported that they prepared a report and submitted it to Amit Shah. However, Harish, who is in charge of North Bengal, has not yet come to the state. He was replaced by Amit Malviya, head of the BJP's central IT cell, who was recently appointed as a co-observer in the North Bengal Zone. According to state BJP sources, Harish did not come to the state due to personal problems. It is learned that Ratnakar, a leader from Uttar Pradesh who has recently been appointed as an assistant observer in Bihar, may be given the responsibility of handling the work in his place.

Incidentally, Mamata Banerjee has always kept the responsibility of selecting candidates from all the centers in consultation with her 'trusted' leaders at the grassroots level. This time the selection of BJP candidates is also in the same hands. 

A central BJP leader in charge of the state said that many people want to be candidates as the BJP may come to power this time. The list of interested candidates is big in all the seats. There are also names from other parties who have joined or can join the BJP. Out of so many names, who will be given the ticket will be judged from seat to seat. In this case, as the organizational strength will be seen, the importance will be given to the local issues, emotions, and political equations according to the seats. Candidates will be selected without considering the possibility of his victory. The recommendations of the local leaders will be scrutinized. Therefore, Amit Shah has sent his trusted leaders to Bengal and asked for a report. The initial report has also been submitted to him.

The central leader further said that before giving the report to Amit Shah, he had not only relied on the words of the state or district leaders but also talked to the lower level workers. Attempts have been made to understand 'ground reality', not just relying on the statistics provided by the state leadership on how much power a booth has. So that the 'deficiency' can be removed before the vote.

In the words of the central leader, "State leaders often do not give importance to some minor issues in that way. But they also stand in the way of electoral success. Amit ji has taken this path in Bengal with lessons from that past experience.”
 

• amit shah
• bjp
• tmc
• west bengal