By PTI
KOLKATA: Protests over selection of candidates by the ruling TMC and opposition BJP for the upcoming civic polls in West Bengal continued on Tuesday, while the leadership of both parties said things will be sorted out.
Unhappy with not being nominated as candidates for the elections to 108 municipal bodies to be held on February 27, several TMC and BJP leaders took to the streets in a number of districts across the state.
Some of them declared that they will contest the polls as independent candidates.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said those who were not selected as candidates should not harbour grievances and instead work to ensure the win of the party.
“We have accommodated the views of those with dissatisfaction in Budge Budge, Kamarhati, Khardah and some other areas. There should not be any further dispute or disagreement,” Chatterjee, also a senior minister, said.
A controversy erupted on Friday evening when Chatterjee and TMC state president Subrata Bakshi released the party’s official list of candidates signed by them.
A separate unsigned list of candidates popped up on the party’s official social media handle.
After both lists were out, protests erupted in various parts of the state, as several disgruntled activists were seen taking to the streets to burn tyres and raise slogans.
“We are all united as a family. If there are disputes, that also get sorted out,” Chatterjee said.
Protests over the candidate list continued in places such as Jalpaiguri, Gobardanga, Barrackpur, Barasat and Raiganj.
Two TMC leaders of Gobardanga and Jalpaiguri municipal areas claimed they will contest as independent candidates against the party’s official nominee.
The situation is similar in the case of the BJP as protests continued in Kharagpur, Murshidabad and several other areas.
In Kharagpur, the residence of a BJP leader was ransacked while the flex of a party candidate was torn by disgruntled workers.
Debi Koley, a leader of the BJP in Kharagpur, asked people not to vote for the official candidate there alleging she had “bought” the party ticket.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said, “Such things are not unusual in a big party. We will solve all disputes.”
Asked to comment on the discontent in the BJP, Partha Chatterjee said it is the internal matter of the saffron party.
