In Bengal first list, BJP deploys Suvendu on Mamata’s turf

KOLKATA: Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari has said he intends to challenge TMC chief Mamata Banerjee in Bhowanipur, the CM’s hometown where she has fielded her in the Assembly three times since 2011. The BJP on Monday named him as its candidate from Bhowanipore and Nandigram, where he defeated Banerjee by 1,956 votes in 2021, a result that was questioned in the Kolkata elections. The BJP has retained 41 sitting MLAs from its first batch of 144 MLAs. “This will be a fight to the end,” Amit Malviya, BJP’s co-chief in Bengal, wrote on X. Veteran Dilip Ghosh enters BJP list, 41 MLAs also get tickets In 2020, just three months before the elections the following year, Adhikari switched from the TMC to the BJP. Among the new faces is Soumitra Chattopadhyay, a seventh-generation descendant of Vande Mataram writer Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Chattopadhyay will contest from Naihati, a town on the banks of the Hooghly river north of Kolkata and the birthplace of Bankim Chandra. Party veteran Dilip Ghosh is back on familiar turf in Kharagpur Sadar, a railway town about 120 kilometers west of Kolkata in West Midnapore district. Ghosh represented the constituency from 2016 to 2019 as a first-time candidate, defeating 10-time MP Gyan Singh Sohanpal. Journalist-turned-politician Swapan Dasgupta, a Padma Shri recipient and former Rajya Sabha member, will fight from Rashbehari in south Kolkata. Kolkata Municipal Corporation councilor Sajal Ghosh has been fielded from Baranagar, an industrial suburb in north Kolkata, while actor Rudranil Ghosh will contest from Shibpur in Howrah district. The list retains 41 sitting MLAs, including Assembly Speaker Shankar Ghosh, who will contest again from Siliguri in North Bengal. Three former MLAs – Jitendra Tiwari from Pandabeswar in Paschim Bardhaman district, Samarendranath Ghosh from Karimpur in Nadia district and Saikat Panja from Manteswar in Purba Bardhaman district – are also on the list. The list includes 11 women, including Agnimitra Paul from Asansol South in Paschim Bardhaman district, Malati Rava Roy from Tufanganj in Cooch Behar district and Chandana Bauri from Saltora in Bankura district. The professionally diverse roster includes 23 teachers, six advocates, five physicians and three retired soldiers. Three spiritual figures also feature on the list – Utpal Maharaj, Swami Mangalananda Puri and Nikhil Banerjee. Former Kurmi Samaj state president Rajesh Mahato, who joined the BJP a few weeks ago, will contest from Gopibalavpur, a tribal-majority constituency in Jhargram district. Mahato has long campaigned for scheduled tribe status for the Kurmi community and inclusion of the Kurmari language in the Eighth Schedule of the constitution.