KOLKATA: BJP on Tuesday sealed its full contingent of 294 candidates for the Bengal assembly polls by announcing 13 names, replacing a couple of nominees in the original list and rejigging the constituencies of a few to stem resentment in the ranks.
Actor Mithun Chakraborty, who had sparked speculation about his chances of getting a ticket by moving back from Mumbai to Kolkata’s Cossipore-Belgachhia constituency as a voter, didn’t make the cut. Party functionaries, however, wouldn’t rule out his chances of being fielded at someone else’s expense at the last minute. Mithun, who had shared the Brigade dais in Kolkata with PM Modi earlier this month, is likely to lead a roadshow for BJP’s Nandigram candidate Suvendu Adhikari next week.
BJP's North Kolkata president Shibaji Singha Roy was nominated for the Cossipore-Belgachhia seat after Kolkata municipal body councillor Tarun Saha, the party’s original choice, denied he had quit TMC. His wife, Mala Saha, is the outgoing TMC MLA from this seat, but hasn’t been nominated this time. Atin Ghosh is TMC’s candidate for the seat.
In Chowringhee, a central Kolkata constituency, BJP fielded Debabrata Majhi after former state Congress president Somen Mitra’s widow Shikha Mitra refused to join the party. BJP shifted former chief economic adviser Ashok Lahiri, who had been nominated from Alipurduar, to Balurghat in South Dinajpur to placate cadres who wanted Suman Kanjilal, the party’s district secretary. Lt Gen (retd) Subrata Saha has been fielded in south Kolkata’s Rashbehari constituency against TMC’s Debashis Kumar. The updated list contains evidence of the party’s efforts to pacify the Matua heartland of Nadia and North 24-Parganas.