Bharatiya Janata Party’s three top leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and national president JP Nadda will not be visiting the state during the panchayat election period.

The three leaders were initially scheduled to visit the state in June to mark nine years of the BJP government at Centre. However, their meeting will now be held after the completion of the panchayat elections, as stated by a senior central BJP leader.

According to saffron party sources, due to the declaration of panchayat election in the state, it is highly unlikely for the trio to come to Bengal, as it is not customary for the central leadership to campaign in local body elections in any state. The nomination process for panchayat elections began on Friday. The BJP has approached the court to demand sufficient time for nominations, exclusion of civic volunteers from the election process, and the deployment of central forces to ensure fair polls.

However, district-wise guidelines have already been sent, stating that nomination papers should be submitted without awaiting the court order. The guidelines, along with the nomination forms, have provided instructions on how to fill in the forms and the required supporting documents.

It has also been mentioned that the district president will assign the symbol for the gram panchayat and panchayat samiti candidates, while the state president will assign symbols to the zilla parishad candidates. The state leadership is expected to make an interim decision on the panchayat elections in an upcoming meeting.

The term of six Rajya Sabha constituencies in West Bengal will end in July, and the term of the newly-elected MPs will begin in August. A source claimed that Union home minister Amit Shah and Leader of Opposition in Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari held a discussion on the Rajya Sabha candidature in Delhi on Friday.

However, neither of them made any public comments following the meeting. It is worth noting that this will be the first time BJP will have a Rajya Sabha MP from Bengal since the party’s formation in 1980, making this a prestige issue.