The Bharatiya Janata Party has directed its West Bengal leadership to avoid unilateral decisions while selecting candidates for the upcoming Kolkata and Howrah municipal elections, according to a report by Sangbad Pratidin. Candidate names will be gathered from the grassroots, reviewed by district election core committees and the state leadership, and finalised through a multi-stage process.
The direction was issued by BJP national general secretary Sunil Bansal at a closed-door meeting on the municipal elections held at the party’s office in Salt Lake on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by West Bengal BJP president Shamik Bhattacharya, Union minister Sukanta Majumdar, who is responsible for the Kolkata municipal election, and MP Rahul Sinha, who is handling the Howrah election.
The report said state BJP general secretary (organisation) Amitabh Chakraborty, MLAs Sanjay Singh and Rudranil Ghosh, and other state general secretaries also attended the meeting. Saudan Singh, the newly appointed central BJP leader responsible for overseeing the organisation in West Bengal, was present as well.
The party is seeking to finalise its candidate lists for Kolkata and Howrah by October, with the first list expected to be released afterwards. The two municipal elections are expected to be held towards the end of November, although the report did not cite an official election schedule or notification.
According to the report, ward-wise names of prospective candidates have already reached the state leadership. In some wards, the number of applicants has reportedly reached 10. The party is also accepting applications from members of the public through a drop box at its office on Muralidhar Sen Lane.
Discussions on the applications are expected to begin after Lakshmi Puja, with the final selection targeted for completion by Kali Puja. The meeting also covered the candidate-selection process, organisational preparations, steps to strengthen the party’s organisation before the elections and its electoral strategy.
The proposed process places ward-level applications and review by party committees ahead of the final decision by the state leadership. For the cities, the immediate significance is that candidate selection has begun before any officially cited election notification, while the final timetable and other election arrangements remain subject to formal confirmation by the competent authorities.
