With 14% women representation, BJP’s first list of candidates show ‘Naari Shakti is another jumla’ of Modi: TMC

: BJP announced its first list featuring 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday which includes 20 from Bengal.

In a significant feature in Bengal’s list of candidates, the BJP has pitted actor Hiranmoy Chattopadhyay for the Ghatal seat in West Midnapore where the Trinamool Congress is likely to field actor Dipak Adhikari, popularly known as Dev.

Hiranmoy is presently a BJP MLA from Kharagpur Sadar seat in Bengal. John Barla has been denied a ticket in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections and Manoj Tigga who is the Chief Whip of the BJP in the Bengal legislative Assembly has been fielded instead of Barla in the Alipurduar seat.

Soumendu Adhikari, brother of Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari will contest from Kanthi in East Midnapore.

Adhikari’s father Sisir Adhikari had won the Kanthi seat in TMC’s ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but switched over to BJP in 2021.

Bhojpuri actor Pawan Singh has been given a ticket to contest from Asansol where he is likely to be pitted against Trinamool Congress’s candidate actor Shatrughan Sinha. Dr. Anirban Ganguly will contest from the Jadavpur seat in Kolkata replacing Anupam Hazra.

The other candidates from Bengal whose names have been announced include Sukanta Majumdar from Balurghat, Rathin Chakraborty from Howrah, Locket Chatterjee from Hooghly, Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato from Purulia, Priya Sarkar from Bolpur, Khagen Murmu from Malda North, union minister Shantanu Thakur from Bongaon (SC), Gouri Shankar Ghosh from Murshidabad, Nirmal Kumar Saha from Berhampore, Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury from Malda South, Jagannath Sarkar from Ranaghat (SC), Ashok Kandari from Joynagar (SC), Saumitra Khan from

Bishnupur and Union minister of state Nisith Pramanik from Cooch Behar.

Subhas Sarkar who has been often facing protests from BJP supporters from BJP supporters alleging his dictatorial attitude has been given the ticket to contest from Bankura.

Reacting to the list of candidates fielded by BJP in the first phase, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale wrote on his X handle: “In today’s list of Lok Sabha candidates declared by BJP — ONLY 28 out of 195 candidates are women. That’s a shameful 14%. Modi is going around the country claiming “Naari Shakti” as his campaign. What stopped the BJP from giving 33% seats to women candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha election? Simple - Naari Shakti is another jumla of Modi.”