Bjp Fields Suvendu In Bengal: In Bengal 1st list, BJP fields Suvendu on Mamata’s turf | India News

KOLKATA: Bengal opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari has signaled his intention to challenge TMC chief Mamata Banerjee in Bhavanipur, the chief minister’s home turf that has sent him to the assembly three times since 2011. On Monday, the BJP nominated her as its candidate from both Bhavanipur and Nandigram, where she defeated Banerjee by 1,956 votes in 2021 – a challenge in the Calcutta High Court. 41 sitting MLAs have been retained in BJP’s first list of 144. “It will be a fight to the finish,” wrote BJP’s Bengal co-in-charge Amit Malviya on X. Veteran Dilip Ghosh in the BJP list, 41 MLAs also got tickets Adhikari switched from TMC to BJP in 2020, just three months before elections next year. Among the new faces is Soumitra Chatterjee, a seventh-generation descendant of Vande Mataram writer Bankimchandra Chatterjee. Chatterjee will contest from Naihati, a town on the Hooghly River north of Kolkata, which is also the birthplace of Bankim Chandra. Veteran party leader Dilip Ghosh returns to familiar ground in the railway town of Kharagpur Sadar, about 120 km west of Kolkata in West Midnapore district. Ghosh represented the seat from 2016 to 2019, defeating 10-time MLA Gyan Singh Sohanpal as a first-time candidate. Journalist-politician Swapan Dasgupta, a Padma Bhushan awardee and former Rajya Sabha member, will contest from Rashbehari in South Kolkata. Kolkata Municipal Corporation councilor Sajal Ghosh has contested from Baranagar, an industrial suburb north of Kolkata, while actor Rudranil Ghosh will contest from Shivpur in Howrah district. The list includes 41 sitting MLAs, including Assembly Chief Whip Shankar Ghosh, who will contest again from Siliguri in North Bengal. Three former MLAs – Jitendra Tiwari of Pandabeshwar in West Burdwan district, Samarendranath Ghosh of Karimpur in Nadia district and Saikat Panja of Monteshwar in East Burdwan district are also on the list. The list includes 11 women, including Agnimitra Pal of Asansol Dakshin in West Burdwan district, Malti Rava Roy of Tufanganj in Cooch Behar district and Chandana Bauri of Saltora in Bankura district. The professionally diverse slate includes 23 teachers, six advocates, five doctors and three retired soldiers. The list also features three spiritual figures — Utpal Maharaj, Swami Mangalananda Puri and Nikhil Banerjee. Former Kurmi Samaj state president Rajesh Mahato, who joined the BJP a week ago, will contest from Gopivallabhpur, a tribal majority seat in Jhargram district. Mahato has long campaigned for Scheduled Tribe status for the Kurmi community and inclusion of the Kurmali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.