The Bharatiya Janata Party released its first list of 144 candidates for West Bengal assembly elections, fielding Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhawanipore seat as well as Nandigram. Adhikari defeated Banerjee in Nandigram in 2021 by 1,956 votes. He claimed he would win both seats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday released its first list of 144 candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls, a day after the announcement of the two-phase election schedule. It fielded Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari from Mamata Banerjee’s current Bhawanipore seat in south Kolkata and his bastion Nandigram in East Midnapore, where he defeated the chief minister by 1,956 votes in 2021. The list also includes former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta from Rashbehari, former state unit chief Dilip Ghosh from Kharagpur Sadar, and Agnimitra Paul from Asansol South. The party dropped two sitting lawmakers and named 11 women, 33 from scheduled castes, and 13 from scheduled tribes. It may leave some seats for allies in the Darjeeling hills out of 294 total. After the announcement, Adhikari said, “I will win both seats and defeat Mamata Banerjee again.” TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh responded, “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.” Bhawanipore has been Banerjee’s preferred seat since 2011, while Nandigram saw a violent land agitation in 2007 that contributed to the fall of the Left Front government. Polls will occur in two phases on April 23 and 29, with results on May 4—the fewest phases since 2001.
