Kolkata, March 20 A group of BJP workers staged a protest outside the party's headquarters in Kolkata on Friday over the selection of certain candidates for the upcoming assembly elections.
Around 50 party workers from the Beleghata area demonstrated, raising slogans and demanding the immediate replacement of candidate Partha Choudhary, alleging that he had little involvement in organizational work.
Similar protests were also staged by some BJP supporters from Jaynagar against candidate Alok Halder.
State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya and the party's state general secretary Locket Chatterjee were seen trying to pacify the agitated workers, who alleged that the selection process had ignored the views of grassroots party workers.
While assuring the protesters that their grievances would be looked into, Bhattacharya and Chatterjee maintained that the decision of the party's central leadership was final and binding.
Some protesters from Beleghata warned that if their demands were not met, they would not allow Choudhary to campaign in the area.
Later, Bhattacharya told reporters that while the sentiments of party workers cannot be ignored, anyone working against the BJP's official candidates could be acting at the behest of rival parties.
The ruling TMC took sharp digs at the BJP following the protests.
"Who would have imagined that when @BJP4India shouted 'Paltano Dorkar', what they truly meant was to turn their party of 'discipline' and 'organisation' into an utter shipwreck? They are like rats fleeing a sinking ship in a flood. Even their own karyakartas have turned their backs on them completely," the TMC said in a social media post.
"Right inside their own Party office in Salt Lake, BJP State President Samik Bhattacharya and former MP Locket Chatterjee were gheraoed, trapped, surrounded, humiliated, by furious, fuming party workers. These are BJP's own dedicated karyakartas now blocking paths, raising slogans, demanding answers, refusing to accept the arbitrary, Delhi-dictated candidate selection," it claimed.