After the special talks on Bengal, is BJP struggling to find 42 faces in state for Lok Sabha polls?

Kolkata, March 19: The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of West Bengal announced its list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha election on March 12, two days after the Election Commission announced the schedule of the election starting April 11.

The Left Front and the Congress, too, have announced their lists, even if partially and that too amid the mess over their probable alliance. However, the BJP is yet to come up with its candidate list for the election and according to many observers, this delay is not helping the party which often claims itself to be the main challenger to the TMC in the state.

The BJP supporters have already started painting graffiti for the upcoming prestige battle but without the candidates' names since they are yet to be finalised. Speculation is on over the candidates the party will field for the seven-phase election. However, the final list of the candidates is yet to be published, 23 days before the first phase of the election.

The BJP showed a marked improvement in its vote-share in Bengal in the 2014 election (almost 17 per cent) although they finished with it just two seats as against the TMC's 34.

The saffron party leaderships - both central and state - have targeted TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who is also the state's chief minister, over the past five years, seeking her ouster. But on the ground, the BJP hasn't been able to produce anything spectacular to walk the talk.

According to experts, the saffron party is waiting to give a last-minute surprise although it is difficult to understand how its surprises can really surprise the ruling party.

The BJP can either contest a whole lot of celebrity faces

The BJP has two options when it comes to picking candidates for the Lok Sabha election. First, it can pick celebrity faces to counter the TMC's celebrity faces. However, one has to keep in mind that even in the TMC, the celebrity candidates do not guarantee success unless they have the backing of the state's tallest leader - Mamata Banerjee.

It's the supremo who is essentially the party's candidate for all the seats and it doesn't matter who is contesting formally. The BJP has no such towering leadership in the state that can give the celebrity candidates a push. Babul Supriyo was an exception in 2014 but that was more because of local reasons.

This time, the TMC has also fielded a celebrity candidate in Moon Moon Sen against Supriyo in the constituency of Asansol and it is to be seen who has the last laugh this time.

Or, the BJP can also go for the TMC leaders who recently left it

The BJP's other option is to field those leaders who made a queue in leaving the TMC and joining its ranks. These leaders have been winners in elections and that might make the BJP feel convinced about their winnability.

But again, it was Banerjee's appeal that sees people winning on TMC's ticket. There is no guarantee that the same leader who won easily for the TMC will repeat the same while contesting for the BJP.

The BJP is not a party to waste time and given the special intensity it has shown towards the election in Bengal which it has also sought to call a "super sensitive state", it is an irony to see that the party is still buying time to announce its candidates for the same election. "There is a process," the party is saying but the delay is certainly not evading eyes.

The saffron party may not say it, but inside its war rooms, it must be conceding how difficult it is to find 42 faces in a state where it has remained a fringe power.

Sentiments might be there against Mamata Banerjee but the BJP certainly lacks the mechanism to cash in on them.