Mukul Roy, former TMC Rajya Sabha MP who had defected to BJP, will be at the helm of affairs related to the forthcoming panchayat elections in West Bengal. This decision was taken during a strategic daylong meeting with BJP national, state and district leaders on Saturday.

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“A separate committee that will look into the panchayat elections has been formed by state president Dilip Ghosh. Mukul Roy has been made convenor of the committee and Samik Bhattacharya will be assistant convenor. There will be six general secretaries and other members. Right after Holi, there will be summits at the five zones of the party in the state. There will also be summits of the women’s wing, OBC wing and the SC/ST wing,” said BJP state secretary Sayantan Basu. He also said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s move to rechristen all central government’s projects and take credit for them shall be protested against.

Earlier, during his inaugural speech, Ghosh said party workers should be ready to take the fight to the cemetery. “No one should think of contesting with a laid-back attitude. There will be violence unleashed by the ruling party with the help of police. They will try every strategy to avoid us from even filing nominations. The fight will not end at the booths. It will continue to the police station, jail, court, hospital and cemetery. All of us should be prepared with a mindset like this and we should know that our national leaders are with us to help us out, an advantage which we have over other Opposition parties such as CPI(M) and Congress,” he said.

Senior TMC leaders are, however, not giving any importance to these statements. “BJP in Bengal is like a turtle turned on its back. It makes a lot of movement but is unable to do anything,” said state parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee.