BJP eyes 2016 West Bengal Assembly polls after winning Basirhat South

Kolkata: Buoyed by its performance in the Assembly bye-elections where the party has secured a win from the Basirhat Dakshin seat, the BJP central leadership is now eyeing the Kolkata civic elections slated for next year and the 2016 Assembly elections to make West Bengal TMC free.

BJP National Secretary Siddharth Nath Singh, the main architect of the party's rise in Bengal, said the BJP would now eye next year's Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections and the 2016 Assembly polls in the state.

"We thank our workers who have been with us in our hardships and all those who have supported us. We will now prepare ourselves for next year's KMC polls and 2016 Assembly polls in order to make West Bengal free from the misrule of Trinamool Congress," Singh said.

"The results prove that only we can fight the misrule of the Trinamool in Bengal and people have restored faith in us," he said. The BJP on Tuesday managed to win a seat in the West Bengal Assembly after 15 years while the state's ruling Trinamool Congress retained the Chowringhee seat in the city.

BJP's state General Secretary Shamik Bhattacharya won the Basirhat Dakshin seat and TMC's Nayana Bandyopadhyay won the Chowringhee seat.

BJP state president Rahul Sinha said that the party would also have won the Chowringhee seat had the TMC not played the communal card. "We would have also won the Chowringhee seat had the Trinamool not played the communal card with the minorities of the area. They tried very hard to stop our victory in Basirhat Dakshin seat too, but they failed. The results have proved that people are with us," said Sinha.

Dismissing opposition claims that though BJP president Amit Shah had campaigned in Chowringhee, yet the party failed to secure a win from there, Singh said "One thing we all have to understand is, in Chowringhee we never got 10,000 votes and this time we have emerged as the second. And Amitji had addressed the rally for the people of Bengal and for both the seats. Moreover, the rally was held there as the party's state committee meeting was going on nearby."