Kolkata Municipal Corporation Elections : Siddharth Nath Singh's team works hard as Bosses don't show up

KOLKATA:With no high-profile leaders turning up to campaign for BJP candidates in fray for the elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the party's national secretary and in-charge o the BJP's Bengal unit, Siddharth Nath Singh, has set up a team to fil the gap to his best abilities. Singh's squad comprises junior urban development minister Babool Supriyo, Darjeeling MP SS Ahluwalia, actress-turned-politicians Rupa Ganguly and Locke Chatterjee and the BJP's Benga unit president Rahul Sinha. All these members have campaigned extensively till Thursday for al the 144 BJP candidates facing the ballots today.

BJP president Amit Shah visited Kolkata in September to campaign for candidates contesting the by-elections to two Assembly seats. But their poor show in the bypolls perhaps put off the party brass and they chose to keep off the civic body elections.

“No senior leaders campaigned ever for municipal elections. I am here because of being in charge of the party in Bengal,“ Singh told ET when asked to comment whether Amit Shah, who had been touring the North East, would hold any campaign rally in Bengal for the second phase of civic polls on April 25.

After campaign for the KMC elec tions was over on Thursday, Singh got himself engaged with campaigns in districts where elections to 92 municipalities would take place on April 25. On Friday, he addressed three rallies at Naihati, Shyamnagar and Titagarh in North 24-Parganas, while Rupa Ganguly held road shows at Rajpur-Sonarpur and Baruipur in South 24-Parganas. Locket Chatterjee held road shows at Agarpara and in some other pockets of North 24-Parganas during the day.

According to sources in the BJP, Shah's team will be touring the districts till April 23 to campaign for the party candidates. April 23 is the last day of campaign for the second round of civic polls.