Kolkata, March 16 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday announced its first list of 144 candidates for the two-phase elections to 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal scheduled for next month — April 23 and April 29.

As had been predicted for quite some time, the party has fielded the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, from both his own constituency of Nandigram in East Midnapore district and from Bhabanipur in south Kolkata, where the sitting legislator is Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

If Mamata Banerjee contests from Bhabanipur again, it will mark the second time that she will be pitted against Adhikari after the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.

Adhikari was elected as a legislator from Nandigram for the second consecutive time in 2021, defeating the then Trinamool Congress candidate Mamata Banerjee.

Later, Banerjee was elected from Bhabanipur in a by-election and retained the post of Chief Minister for the third consecutive term.

Another important name in the first list announced by the BJP on Monday is that of former West Bengal BJP president and former national vice-president of the party, Dilip Ghosh.

He has been fielded from his old Assembly constituency of Kharagpur (Sadar) in West Midnapore district, from where he was elected in the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections.

However, Ghosh resigned as the MLA from Kharagpur (Sadar) after being elected to the Lok Sabha from the Medinipur constituency in the same district in the 2019 general elections.

Former Rajya Sabha member and journalist-turned-politician Swapan Dasgupta has been fielded from the Rashbehari constituency in south Kolkata.

Actor-turned-politician Rudranil Ghosh has been fielded from the Shibpur Assembly constituency in Howrah district.

BJP insiders had earlier indicated that most of the party’s sitting legislators would be re-nominated this time.

Accordingly, the first list of candidates features a majority of familiar faces.

However, the name of the sitting BJP MLA from Balurghat constituency in South Dinajpur district and former Chief Economic Adviser to the Union government, Ashok Kumar Lahiri, is missing from the first list.

Instead, Vidyut Roy has been fielded from Balurghat this time.

Fashion designer-turned-politician and sitting BJP legislator Agnimitra Paul has been re-nominated from her constituency of Asansol (Dakshin) in West Burdwan district.

Chandana Bauri from Saltora constituency in Bankura district and Shikha Chattopadhyay from Dabgram–Phulbari constituency in Jalpaiguri district are among other prominent sitting MLAs who have also received re-nominations.

–IANS

src/pgh