The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday released its first list of 144 candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls from Delhi, fielding Suvendu Adhikari against chief minister Mamata Banerjee at her Bhwanipore constituency in south Kolkata as well as his Nandigram seat in East Midnapore district where he defeated her in 2021.
The development came a day after Adhikari, the leader of the opposition (LoP) in the Bengal legislative assembly, told media persons that Nandigram is the seat he would like to contest but will follow the party’s decision.
“Nandigram is where my heart is. I would always contest from Nandigram but the party makes its own decisions,” he said in Bengal.
Also Read: ‘Can’t have BJP rule India’: Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata rally over I-PAC raid
While most of the BJP’s sitting legislators were fielded from their current seats, former state president Dilip Ghosh was fielded from Kharagpur Sadar in West Midnapore district, replacing the saffron camp’s sitting MLA Hiranmay Chattopadhyay, a former Bengali movie actor. Ghosh won the seat in 2016 before being elected to the Lok Sabha after a three-year tenure as MLA. His tenure as MP ended in 2024.
Former Chief Economic Adviser to the Centre, Ashok Lahiri, was not fielded from his Balurghat seat in north Bengal. Only 11 of the 144 BJP candidates in the first list are women. BJP may not contest all 294 seats in the eastern state and may leave a few to its allies in the Darjeeling hills, leaders aware of the details said.
TMC secured 213 seats in 2021, while the BJP won only 77.
After the BJP announced Adhikari’s name on Monday, Samik Bhattacharya, the party’s state president, said, “Adhikari expressed his willingness to contest from Bhawanipore.”
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said, “Adhikari will be routed from both Bhawanipore and Nandigram. He is contesting against the chief minister only to steal some limelight before becoming politically irrelevant forever.”
Adhikari did not comment on his nominations till 6pm.
Among the Bengal BJP MLAs fielded from their current seats are Agnimitra Paul (Asansol South), Shankar Ghosh (Siliguri), Dipak Burman (Falakata), Gouri Shankar Ghosh (Murshidabad) and Anup Saha (Dubrajpur).
