Amit Shah to decide BJP civic poll battle plan, Kolkata civic poll, Kolkata Civic Body Election, Civic poll 2014, Kolkata election updates

Amit Shah to decide BJP civic poll battle plan

BJP national president Amit Shah is likely to meet senior party functionaries of state BJP in New Delhi on Thursday.  The meeting aims to decide on the party's city civic poll road map slated in 2015. Shah himself will be coming to Kolkata on November 30 to set BJP's KMC campaign rolling. BJP national secretary Sidharth Nath Singh and state president Rahul Sinha is likely to meet Shah, capping a two-day strategy meet, which Singh held in Kolkata.

Trinamool Congress had already indicated it will head to the polls with Sovan Chatterjee as its mayoral candidate, pitting several fresh — and apolitical — faces to take on a resurgent BJP.

"For the last two-days I, along with the state leadership, have been deliberating on this issue. I, along with state BJP president Rahul Sinhaji, will meet the national president to further take his inputs on it. The KMC election, for us, is a semi-final in the run-up to the 2016 assembly elections," said Singh.

According to sources, a key aspect, which was discussed, is whether or not BJP will head to the polls with a mayoral candidate. While the name of Tathagata Roy has been doing the rounds for sometime, sources indicated BJP is weighing other options, including an apolitical heavyweight.

"Such decisions will always be taken by the party's national leadership. We can only put forth our views in appropriate forums," a senior leader remarked.

The immediate challenge facing the state BJP leadership is to pin down its list of candidates for the 141-seat KMC board. With the inclusion of Joka gram panchayat areas, the number of seats is slated to increase to a 144-seat board. The State Election Commission is also working on seat delimitation, which has kept all parties on tenterhooks.

"We anticipate some issues on the mode of delimitation. We are prepared for a situation regarding seats where BJP is a strong contender to be suddenly reserved for women or vice-versa. All these have been factored in the two-day discussions," a senior BJP leader said.

Singh said, "On the candidate list, I can only say now that there will not be a dearth of good candidates." BJP has three sitting councillors. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's December 20 rally in Kolkata has also been factored in.

Sinha has already set up committees for KMC polls. The state BJP had already kicked up a furore with a high-decibel rally on October 17 at the KMC headquarters in S N Banerjee Road.

Having lost 27 KMC wards and with BJP breathing down its neck in 33 others in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool is not going to get a walk over this time. Though its run-away 2010 lead of 91 seats in the 141-member KMC board is intact (TMC won 97 seats), it cannot cushion the party from the bumpy road ahead. BJP now has a 20% and above vote share in at least 14 assembly segments, which make up KMC.

In a scenario where anything above 5,000 votes can seal the fate of winners, at least nine Kolkata-based Trinamool cabinet ministers have seen a significant drop in their vote share.

In fact, chief minister Mamata Banerjee faced the worst, "losing" Bhowanipore with her vote share dropping from 77.46% to 34.7%.

 src:timesofindia

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