State tourism minister Gautam Deb on Monday predicted that top BJP leadership will not campaign for the rural elections in north Bengal. Asked to comment on the BJP’s aggressive election campaigning, Minister Deb said: “I want Prime Minister Narendra Modi to start the election campaigning for them. Yogi Aditya, who can’t retain a seat in his constituency, will do nothing here for his party candidates.”
“I think no senior BJP leader will come here for campaigning,” he added. A senior BJP leader in north Bengal, Rathindra Bose, however, said that the situation is not right for senior leaders to visit the region, given the violence and the ‘terror tactics.’
“How can senior leaders come here amid terror? Not only party leaders, but their relatives too are in no position to venture out of their houses following attacks of Trinamul Congress members,” he said.
Talking to this correspondent over the phone from Cooch Behar, Mr Bose said: “In Cooch Behar, Trinamul Congress activists have unleashed a terror tactics, preventing the BJP workers from filing nomination papers.”
“In Dinhata, Sitai, Tufanganj and Natabari, our party workers could not file a single nomination paper following attacks from the Trinamul Congress. Several party workers were injured after the ruling party workers attacked our party men,” Mr Bose claimed.
The BJP leader also said that his party leader Atul Subba was attacked and his car damaged by ruling party members at Kalchini. A group of workers were also injured in an attack by alleged Trinamul Congress members in front of the Rajganj Block Office in Jalpaiguri as they tried to file nomination papers.
BJP candidates were trying to file nomination papers for a few seats for the three-tier panchayat seats where Trinamul Congress candidates were earlier supposed to win without contesting.