The BJP on Monday announced a new candidate for the upcoming Noapara Assembly bypoll, a day after its first pick, TMC member Manju Basu, refused to contest on its ticket. Claiming she was not aware of being chosen as the BJP’s candidate, Basu had on Sunday said she would remain with the Trinamool Congress. Following this, the BJP’s central election committee on Monday announced Sandeep Banerjee as its new candidate for the Noapara bypoll, which will be held on January 29. It also named Anupam Mallick as its candidate for the Uluberia Lok Sabha bypoll, which will be held the same day. BJP leader Mukul Roy told reporters that Basu was threatened by TMC workers. “She was threatened and intimidated by TMC workers. In Bengal, no one has the freedom to do politics. Today, Basu failed to take an independent decision under pressure from her own party,” he said. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “We made an attempt to bring her into our party. Our attempt has failed. She was being continuously threatened by TMC workers. How can a person take a decision under such circumstances? We will again make such attempts in future.” Rumours that Basu would defect from TMC were triggered on Thursday, after she met BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy at her house. While Basu on Sunday admitted to meeting the BJP leaders, she said she had not given consent to contest the bypoll. “I have said it yesterday and I am saying it today as well. I have full faith in Mamata Banerjee, and I did not give my consent to BJP that I will contest from Noapara,” Basu said. Questions have been raised about why the BJP announced Basu as its candidate before inducting her. Party insiders said Roy had made the attempt to bring Basu into BJP, going against the will of the state party unit. His failure has given parts of the state BJP the opportunity to train guns on him, they added. “The state unit wanted to field a long-time BJP member as its candidate. But due to Roy’s insistence, the party chose Basu. Roy even managed to convince the central leadership that Basu will join BJP. However, that experiment failed, and now Roy is answerable to the central leadership. This will also raise questions on Roy’s ability to rope in leaders from other parties,” a senior BJP leader told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity.
