New Delhi: West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari will contest from Kolkata’s Bhabanipur, the constituency currently held by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the BJP announced Monday while releasing its first list of 144 candidates for the two-phase assembly elections scheduled for April 23 and 29.
Adhikari, considered one of the BJP’s strongest faces in West Bengal, will also contest from Nandigram, where he defeated Mamata in the 2021 assembly elections. That loss forced the chief minister to later contest a bypoll from Bhabanipur to enter the assembly.
“BJP releases its first list of candidates for West Bengal. Our Leader of Opposition, Shri Suvendu Adhikari, will contest from Nandigram, where he defeated Mamata Banerjee in 2021, and from Bhabanipur, the constituency she currently represents as an MLA. This will be a fight to the finish,” BJP’s West Bengal co-incharge Amit Malviya posted on X.
Among other prominent BJP leaders in the state, former MP and state president Dilip Ghosh will contest from Kharagpur Sadar, while Agnimitra Paul has been fielded from Asansol South.
Former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, who unsuccessfully contested the 2021 assembly elections from Tarakeswar, has once again been fielded, this time from Rashbehari constituency in Kolkata.
The Election Commission of India Sunday announced the schedule for the West Bengal assembly polls. Results will be out on 4 May.
In 2021, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) secured 215 seats, while the BJP finished a distant second with 77 seats to become the official Opposition.
This time, the BJP is banking on what it calls “high anti-incumbency” in its bid to unseat the TMC, which has been in power since 2011 after ending the Left Front’s 34-year rule in the state. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have been making frequent visits to the state in recent months.
The BJP, which had a vote share of around 4 percent in the 2011 assembly elections, has made significant inroads in West Bengal over the past decade. In the 2021 polls, even though it fell far short of a majority, its vote share surged to about 38 percent.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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