BJP dubs Bengal panchayat polls as 'quarter-final'

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said the Congress and the CPI-M will not field candidates to contest the rural polls.

Burdwan (WB), May 2: The BJP on Tuesday said that next year's panchayat election in West Bengal would be the 'quarter-final' while the 2019 Lok Sabha poll would be the 'semi-final' before the assembly election in 2021.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said that the party would put up a strong fight against the Trinamool Congress in the panchayat election and asked party cadres to fan out in the districts to strengthen the organisation at the grassroots level.

"The panchayat polls will be quarter-finals and Lok Sabha election will be semi-final before the Assembly election which will be the final," he told reporters after the party's state committee meeting which concluded.

Ghosh said he had asked the state unit to prepare about 10,000 dedicated cadres who would visit each and every booth of the state and talk about achievements of the Modi government and "misrule of the TMC regime".

His comment came in the backdrop of BJP national president Amit Shah's remark during his recent visit here that booth protection committees have to be set up at every booth in the state.

"We will start training these booth-level workers from next month and for the next one year they will visit each and every booth of the state. In the last panchayat polls we had managed to field candidates only in 25-30 per cent seats because of the terror tactics adopted by the TMC. But in next year's rural polls we will contest for each and every seat. The situation is changing fast. We will also ensure that the booths are protected from being looted by the goons of the TMC," he said.

Asked whether he would appeal to the Union government for central forces in the panchayat polls, Ghosh said, "We don't want to depend on anybody for fighting the elections. We will fight on our own strength."

"The people of the state are supporting us. Workers and activists of other parties, including the TMC, who are fed up with this corrupt regime, are joining us everyday," he said.

Apparently keeping in mind CBI's FIR against 12 TMC ministers in the Narada sting video case, Ghosh said, "None knows what will happen to the TMC. Some of those leaders may be arrested. The Congress and the CPI-M will not get candidates to contest the rural polls. It will be a straight contest between the TMC and the BJP," he said.

In a lighter vein Ghose said, "Whenever I say something, it comes out true. Last time I said the CBI will inquire into the Narada sting operation and it came to be true. Let's see what happens in future."

PTI