BJP’s Second List of 111 Candidates for West Bengal Elections Include for Union Minister
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 19: The BJP making a strong bid to oust the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, on Thursday released its second list of 111 candidates to contest the April elections to the 294-member state Assembly, while the veteran Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a former Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, expressed his keen desire to return to the state politics if permitted by the party high command.
The BJP had announced its first list of 144 candidates on the day the election schedule was announced for the state by the Election Commission of India ECI) on March 15. The second list featured the former union minister of state for home affairs Nisith Paramanik, who lost the 2024 Parliamentary elections, to contest from Mathabhanga Assembly constituency, and 19 women candidates including the TV epic serial Mahabharata-fame Roopa Ganguly to contest from Sonarpur Dakshin.
The list also include Rekha Patra, one of the victims of the alleged atrocities in infamous Sandeshkhali, who had also unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Parliamentary elections from Basirhat, as its candidate for Hingalganj seat. The party stalwart Arjun Singh, who had crossed over to the BJP from Trinamool Congress on the eve of the last Assembly elections, has been fielded from Noapara.
Dibyendu Adhikari, the brother of the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Suvendu Adhikari (who is contesting from two seats: Bhabanipur and Nandigram), has also been fielded by the BJP from the Egra assembly constituency. Ms Priyanka Tibrewal, who was defeated by the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee by a record margin of over 50,000 votes in a byelection from Bhabanipur, will contest from Entally.
The BJP has also made a couple of changes to its first list. From the Bishnupur seat, the party has now fielded Viswajit Khan. Meanwhile, Biswajit Mahato will contest from Joypur.
With this, the saffron party has named 255 candidates for the West Bengal polls for which the polling will be held in two phases: April 23 and April 29. The counting of votes will be taken up along with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and the union territory (UT) of Puducherry on May 4.
Meanwhile, Mr Chowdhury hinted at returning to the West Bengal legislative politics after around three decades and said he may contest the upcoming assembly elections in the state from the Baharampur seat if the party decides to field him.
“I am a foot soldier of the party. If the party wants me to contest the elections, then I will surely do it. All our senior leaders have been instructed that we should contest elections,” the 70-year-old former Lok Sabha MP said during a press briefing in Baharampur.
Chowdhury had first contested the West Bengal assembly polls in 1991 from the Nabagram constituency in the Murshidabad district, but lost to CPI(M) leader Sisir Kumar Sarkar by a margin of around 1,400 votes. He contested from Nabagram again in 1996 and won after he received more than 76,000 votes. Although he had vacated the seat three years later in 1999 to contest the general elections that year from the Berhampore constituency.
Since then, the veteran Congressman has won this constituency five times. He had contested from Berhampore again in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but lost to cricketer-turned-politician and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Yusuf Pathan by around 85,000 votes.
The Congress is yet to release its first list of candidates for the West Bengal elections. The party had contested the 2021 polls along with the Left alliance. It had contested on 91 seats but had failed to win even a single seat in the 294-member legislative assembly, but had secured a vote share of around 2.93 per cent. Congress’ performance in 2016 West Bengal polls was also dismal, where it had won 44 seats with a 12.25 per cent vote share.
