BJP declares last Bengal list, Mithun Chakraborty fails to make the cut

BJP on Tuesday sealed its 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 Narendra 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 Corporation councillor Tarun Saha, the party’s original choice, denied he had quit Trinamool. His wife, Mala Saha, is the outgoing Trinamool MLA from this seat, but hasn’t been nominated this time. Atin Ghosh is Trinamool’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 Trinamool’s Debashis Kumar.

The updated list contains evidence of the party’s efforts to pacify the Matua heartland of Nadia and North 24-Parganas, which spans seven reserved assembly segments. Bongaon MP Santanu Thakur’s brother and Matua Thakurbari member Subrata Thakur has been nominated from Gaighata, although their father, former Trinamool minister Manjul Krishna Thakur, did not get a ticket.

The announcement came four days before PM Modi’s scheduled visit to the birthplace of Matua gurus Guruchand Thakur and Harichand Thakur, at Orakandi in Bangladesh, on March 27. There have been protests from the Matua community over the delayed implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Former Congress-turned-Trinamool councillor Subrata Moitra is the party’s candidate in Berhampore.