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KOLKATA: Bengal’s opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari had signalled his intent to challenge TMC chief Mamata Banerjee in Bhowanipore, the CM’s home turf that has sent her to the assembly three times since 2011. On Monday, BJP named him candidate from both Bhowanipore and Nandigram, where he defeated Banerjee by 1,956 votes in 2021 — a result under challenge in Calcutta HC. BJP’s first list of 144 retains 41 sitting MLAs. “This will be a fight to the finish,” wrote BJP’s Bengal co-incharge Amit Malviya on X. Veteran Dilip Ghosh in BJP list, 41 MLAs too get tickets Adhikari had switched from TMC to BJP in 2020, barely three months before elections the following year. Among the fresh faces is Soumitra Chattopadhyay, seventh-generation descendant of Vande Mataram author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
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Chattopadhyay will contest from Naihati, a Hooghly river town north of Kolkata that is also Bankim Chandra’s birthplace. Party veteran Dilip Ghosh returned to familiar turf in Kharagpur Sadar, a railway town about 120km west of Kolkata in West Midnapore district. Ghosh had represented the constituency from 2016 to 2019, defeating 10-time MLA Gyan Singh Sohanpal as a first-time candidate. Journalist-turned-politician Swapan Dasgupta, a Padma Bhushan awardee and former Rajya Sabha member, will fight from Rashbehari in south Kolkata. Kolkata Municipal Corporation councillor Sajal Ghosh has been fielded from Baranagar, an industrial suburb north of Kolkata, while actor Rudranil Ghosh will contest from Shibpur in Howrah district. The list retains 41 sitting MLAs, including assembly chief whip 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, among them are 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 slate features 23 teachers, six advocates, five doctors and three retired soldiers. Three spiritual figures also appear on the list — Utpal Maharaj, Swami Mangalananda Puri, and Nikhil Banerjee. Former Kurmi Samaj state president Rajesh Mahato, who joined BJP weeks ago, will contest from Gopiballavpur, a tribalmajority constituency in Jhargram district. Mahato has long campaigned for scheduled tribe status for Kurmi community and inclusion of Kurmali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
