BJP announces list of 148 candidates; Mukul Roy, Rahul Sinha among key names

New Delhi/Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday released its fourth list for the upcoming Bengal Assembly elections for the last four phases, which includes party vice-president and senior leader Mukul Roy's name from Krishnanagar North constituency while party's national secretary Rahul Sinha will contest from Habra and will be facing incumbent state minister Jyotipriya Mallick.

The party's national general secretary Arun Singh announced a total of 148 candidate names, among which 19 are women and eight are Muslim candidates. Ranaghat Lok Sabha MP Jagannath Sarkar will contest the elections from Shantipur. Former MLA Bankim Chandra Ghosh has been named as a candidate from the Chakdaha constituency.

The list also apparently 'named' Shikha Mitra, wife of late Bengal Congress stalwart Soumen Mitra, from Chowringhee. Mitra had been TMC MLA from this constituency from 2011 to 2016. Dismissing her candidature, she said her family has been associated with the Congress party for years now and that she never joined the BJP, neither had any discussion over the issue.

In a major embarrassment for the BJP, the other candidate who also refused to contest, is Tarun Saha, husband of the TMC's outgoing MLA from Kashipur-Belgachia constituency, Mala Saha.

She has been representing the constituency since 2011 but was denied a ticket this time, as the party fielded Kolkata's outgoing deputy mayor Atin Ghosh from there. "I was busy in the campaign of our candidate Atin Ghosh when suddenly I heard I was named a BJP candidate. I have not joined the BJP. They named me a candidate without even consulting me," Saha informed the media, who has been a veteran corporate in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Another senior Bengal BJP leader Shamik Bhattacharya will contest from Rajarhat-Gopalpur and will face TMC's Aditi Munshi.

Erstwhile TMC leader Rudraneel Ghosh, who joined BJP earlier this year in the presence of Union Home minister Amit Shah in the national Capital, will contest from Bhowanipore, which is also Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's bastion. TMC's Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay will contest from there this time.

Another silver screen star Parno Mitra will contest from Baranagar against TMC's Tapas Roy. Fashion designer and BJP Mahila Morcha president Agnimitra Paul will contest from Asansol South Assembly constituency against actor-turned-politician Saayoni Ghosh of the Trinamool.

However, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh's name was not on the list. According to media reports, he will not be fighting the Assembly elections.

Anirban Ganguly, director of the BJP-affiliated Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation will contest from Bolpur, the first Mayor of Bidhannagar and BJP secretary Sabyasachi Dutta, party's MLA from Rajarhat-New Town Assembly constituency is the candidate from Bidhannagar, and journalist Jagannath Chatterjee will contest from Suri.

Trinamool turncoats Jitendra Tiwari, Arindam Bhattacharya, Deeptangshu Chowdhury and Shilbhadra Dutta will contest from Pandabeshwar, Jagatdal, Durgapur East, and Khardah respectively. Folk singer Asim Sarkar will contest from Haringhata (SC) seat. Shankar Ghosh who recently joined BJP from CPI(M) will contest from Siliguri.

BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar from Ranaghat will contest from Shantipur. Former deputy mayor Meena Devi Purohit will fight from the Jorasanko seat. Former CPI(M) MLA Mafuja Khatun will contest from Sagardighi.

Awad Kishore Gupta will fight against Firhad Hakim in Kolkata Port while Loknath Chatterjee will fight against Subrata Mukherjee in Ballygunge. Priyanka Tibriwal and Kashinath Biswas will contest from Entally and Beliaghata respectively while Kalyan Chaubey will contest from Manicktala.

BJP leader Mukul Roy's son Subhrangshu Roy, who was suspended from Trinamool Congress for six years and joined the saffron party last year, will contest from Bijpur, whereas BJP Lok Sabha MP Arjun Singh's son and the incumbent MLA Paban Singh will again contest from the same Bhatpara Assembly constituency.

The other women candidates in the list are Sikha Chatterjee (Dabgram-Phulbari), Rajashree Rajbanshi (Madhyamgram), Dipika Chatterjee (Deganga), Chandima Roy (Hemtabad), Tanuja Chakraborty (Ashoknagar), Falguni Patra (Naihati), Kalita Majhi (Ausgram), Mausumi Das (Malatipur), Kalpana Ghosh (Lalgola), Masuhara Khatun (Raninagar), Shreerupamitra Choudhury (Englishbazar), Rubiya Khatun (Domkal), Priyanka Tibrewal (Entally), Mina Devi Purohit (Jorasanko) and Priya Saha (Sainthia).

However, later in the evening, the party-state unit issued another list of nine candidates, including two women candidates, Baishali Dalmiya, incumbent MLA from the Bally Assembly constituency who will again contest the elections from there and Bengali film star Sravanti Chatterjee from Behala West.

The Education minister of West Bengal and senior Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee is contesting the elections from that constituency.

Surprisingly, BJP has dropped former Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) and noted economist Ashok Lahiri from Alipurduar and fielded Suman Kanjilal from that constituency. While contacted, the party source claimed that the local leadership was against Lahiri's candidature, which forced the party top brass to replace him.

The other candidates are Nikhil Ranjan Dey (Coochbehar South), incumbent MLA Mihir Goswami (Natabari), Dipak Barman (Falakata), Ranjan Baidya (Sonarpur North), Rathindranath Chakraborty (Shibpur), and Debabrata Biswas (Saptagram).

This candidate list has been finalised after an eight-hour-long core committee meeting of the party's Bengal unit at BJP national president JP Nadda's residence on Wednesday and a nine-hour-long CEC meeting, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the party headquarters on the same day.

The party-state leadership seems to be under immense pressure as BJP workers are protesting at various places in Bengal over the candidate lists.

The last couple of days saw a mob of agitated party workers revolting. Senior leaders Mukul Roy, Arjun Singh and Shiv Prakash were heckled by protesters for fielding a high number of former Trinamool leaders as the party's candidates. Hundreds of people, both men and women, shouted, jostled and kicked barricades in an attempt to force their way into the BJP's election office in Hastings.

Heavy deployment of police personnel has been done to manage the escalating situation. Several other BJP offices in the districts were also ransacked.