The second list of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates in West Bengal for the upcoming Lok Sabha election comprised a mixed bag, including former Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, two turncoats from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and a woman from Sandeshkhali who was at the receiving end of the violence.
Former Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who resigned from the Calcutta High Court recently, has been nominated from the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat. The party has fielded Arjun Singh from Barrackpore, and Tapas Roy from Kolkata Uttar. Both Mr. Singh and Mr. Roy had quit the Trinamool Congress to join the BJP recently. The BJP candidates from Tamluk, Kolkata Uttar, and Barrackpore had joined the party earlier this month.
Mr. Gangopadhyay will take on Trinamool Congress youth leader Debangshu Bhattacharya at Tamluk, while Mr. Roy will be pitted against veteran Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Banerjee from Kolkata Uttar. Mr. Singh will be contesting against State’s Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Partha Bhowmick from Barrackpore.
The BJP has changed the seats of Dilip Ghosh and Debasree Chowdhury, who were elected from Medinipur and Raiganj Lok Sabha seats, respectively. Mr. Ghosh will be contesting from Bardhaman Durgapur and Ms. Chowdhury will be contesting from Kolkata Dakshin seat.
BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul will be contesting from Medinipur Lok Sabha seat and will be pitted against June Maliah. The party has fielded Amrita Roy from Krishnanagar against Trinamool Congress nominee Mahua Moitra. The BJP has fielded four women candidates, including Rekha Patra from the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat. Ms. Patra, a villager at Sandeshkhali, suffered violence allegedly at the hands of the local Trinamool Congress, and lodged a complaint with the police.
The BJP has retained Raju Bista from Darjeeling and Jayanta Roy from the Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha seat.
This was the second list of BJP candidates from West Bengal.
Along with fielding Asansol MLA Agnimitra Pal from Medinipur, the party has fielded Ashim Kumar Sarkar, MLA from Haringhata, from the Bardhaman Purba Lok Sabha constituency.
From Sreerampur, the party has fielded Kabir Shankar Bose, an advocate, to take on Trinamool’s Kalyan Banerjee. The party’s nominee from Raiganj is Kartick Paul, and Dhananjay Ghosh is the nominee from Jangipur. From Dum Dum, the BJP has nominated Shilbhadra Dutta, and Swapan Majumdar from Barasat. The BJP’s nominee from Mathurapur is Ashok Purkait, and Arun Uday Pal Chowdhury will contest from Uluberia on a BJP ticket.
With the announcement, the BJP has declared candidates for 38 of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the State.
