Close on the heels of the Calcutta High Court directing the State Election Commission to accept nominations filed by 831 CPI-M candidates through e-mail, the BJP has said it will also file an appeal in the court for validation of nominations sent online by 2,000 odd candidates of the saffron party, state party president Dilip Ghosh said here on Wednesday.

Mr Ghosh said the BJP had accepted the challenge and would continue to fight amid ‘attacks’ on its activists. The court yesterday asked the SEC to accept the nominations sent by 831 CPI-M candidates before 3 pm on 23 April.

“The court gave its verdict by considering all aspects. It shows that thousands of candidates could not file the nomination papers. If free and fair elections are to be ensured, then other candidates should also get similar opportunities,” Mr Ghosh said.

“We feel that such a directive should not be for a particular political party, but for all the parties. We are moving the court, asking it to validate the 2,000 BJP nominations,” he added.

Mr. Ghosh said that despite the attacks and atrocities, his party would continue to fight. “During filing of nomination papers, our party men were attacked at 475 places, and five persons were killed, 1200 were injured. Many are still undergoing treatment in private health facilities, while some went to other states for treatment.

A total of 650 persons have been arrested without reason. The BJP has accepted it as a challenge and it will continue to fight,” he said. Asked about BJP candidates joining the Trinamul Congress, he said BJP candidates and their families were intimidated and forced to join the TMC in some cases.

“We had fielded 38,000 candidates in the polls, but now only 31,000 candidates are in the field. The situation of other political parties is worse. Their MPs and MLAs are also being made to join the Trinamul Congress. The Opposition candidates are either being lured with cash or are facing a fear psychosis,” Mr Ghosh said.

He said that in the north Bengal districts where rural polls would be held, the BJP would be in a comfortable position and stand ahead. “North Bengal had been a stronghold of the BJP In the last parliamentary polls, and we got more than 17 percent of the votes in the region,” he added.

The state BJP chief also said they were not bothered about the election date.”We have no problem if the polls are held in May or June. Our preparations are complete and we will fight and show the best results,” he said.

Reminded that arch rivals CPI-M and the BJP were contesting together against the Trinamul Congress in some areas, Mr Ghosh said the same could not be termed as alliance.

“We have an alliance only with the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha, but the rural polls are not held here. But in some cases, people of different political parties might have thought that that BJP could pose a challenge to the Trinamul Congress. So many candidates of different political parties and Independents have joined hands with us in places like Murshidabad and Nadia,” he said.