Kolkata, Dec 11 (IANS) The BJP's West Bengal unit has set a target to field women candidates from at least 12 out of the state's total 42 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, party sources said.

“An ideal situation will be if we can nominate women candidates in 14 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats considering our party’s target nationally is to field at least 33 per cent women candidates. But even if that does not happen our target this time is to nominate women candidates in at least 12 Lok Sabha seats,” a BJP state committee member said.

If that happens the number will be significantly higher than what was fielded by the party in the 2019 general elections.

In 2019, the BJP fielded a total of five candidates, out of which two got elected -- actress-turned-politician Locket Chatterjee and Debasree Chaudhuri.

Chaudhuri had also served Minister of State for Woman and Child Development from May 2019 to July 2021.

The BJP sources also said that a few leading faces of the party who are currently members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly as well as some vocal women spokespersons are in the lead to be fielded.

Without further elaborating on the issue, the BJP’s state president Sukanta Majumdar said: “There is a lot of time to go for candidate selection and the final decision on this count is with our central leadership. But our party’s stand is always to bring women leadership in the forefront."