With at least 25 per cent of its candidates getting imported from the ruling Trinamool Congress or the CPI(M), rumblings of

discontent increased in Bengal BJP hours after the saffron outfit published its first candidate list for the coming Lok Sabha elections.

A posse of violent party men ransacked the Coochbehar district party office and blockaded the district BJP president’s car

protesting the candidature of Nitish Pramanik an erstwhile TMC leader.

“Pramanik has no credibility. He is an imported person from the TMC, a party that has unleashed untold miseries on our workers for the past several years. Yet he has been given the nomination because of money and muscle power. The people will not accept him,” a senior district party leader said adding he would tender his resignation from his party post.

“Dipak Burman who has been working for the party for the past several years and has a better acceptability among the mass should have been given the nomination. Pramanik needed more time to settle down in the party,” another local party man said claiming workers would “feel demoralised.”

While many local leaders went about tendering resignations requiring the district leadership a hard time to contain the unrest, there were online appeals to the people asking them to press the “none of the above” (NOTA) button, party sources said wondering “how the party could give nomination to a person whose name is yet to be cleared from charges of human trafficking.”

Decibel levels were high in south Bengal too with discontented leaders like State BJP vice president Raj Kamal Pathak tendering his resignation after he was denied ticket. Pathak lost out in the ticket race to actress-turned politician Locket Chatterjee who has been fielded from Hooghly seat Pathak’s home-turf.

“Everyone has an aspiration to serve the nation. I was also expecting a candidature either from Hooghly or anywhere else. But I am disheartened and don’t see any reason to continue on my post,” Pathak said.

Similarly a BJP block president from Ghatal in West Midnapore from where the party has fielded former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh said, “how will we convince the people that we are a party with difference if we continue to hire tainted candidates from the TMC?” Ghosh though never a Trinamool member was close to the top leadership of that party and is

currently facing charges of corruption that took place during demonetisation.