BJP forms committee for municipal polls in Kolkata

With an eye on the polls of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and other civic bodies of West Bengal, the BJP's state unit has formed a 57-member election committee, party leaders said. The elections to 107 civic bodies and the KMC, will be the last major electoral contest ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls in the state. Being seen as the mini-Assembly elections, the polls are due in April-May this year.

Former two-time Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who has joined the BJP from the TMC in August last year and is presently having a strained relation with the saffron party, was kept out of the election committee led by state president Dilip Ghosh.

The election committee will function in coordination with BJP national general secretary and Bengal minder, Kailash Vijayvargiya, and the central leadership, a party leader said. "The civic polls would be of immense importance. It is the last litmus test in the civic areas of the state. It would also be the first major election after the CAA-NRC-NPR issue came up," the senior leader said.

He said if the elections are held in a free and fair manner, the BJP will win. "The elections would help us sensing the mood of the city and its surrounding areas and semi-urban areas about the CAA. Based on its results, we would chalk out our future strategy," the leader said.

The BJP has made deep inroads in West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state by bagging 18 out of the 42 parliamentary seats of the state.