Kolkata/New Delhi, March 19 The BJP on Thursday released its second list of 112 candidates for the upcoming West Bengal assembly polls, fielding Sandeshkhali protestor Rekha Patra from the Hingalganj seat, actor Roopa Ganguly from Sonarpur Dakshin in Kolkata's outskirts, and former Kolkata police commissioner Rajesh Kumar from Jagatdal, among the party's most prominent faces in the poll fray.
The saffron camp, however, made no announcements for the Panihati seat in North 24 Parganas, leaving speculation about whether the mother of the victim of the RG hospital rape and murder would be its candidate.
The party chose to retain its three sitting MLAs from the state's Matua community citadel in North 24 Parganas district, fielding Ashok Kirtania, Swapan Majumdar, and Subrata Thakur (brother of union minister Shantanu Thakur) from the Bongaon Uttar, Bongaon Dakshin, and Gaighata seats, respectively.
Cooch Behar-based former union minister Nisith Pramanik was awarded a ticket from the district's Mathabhanga segment, while Arjun Singh, the BJP's former MP from the Barrackpore industrial belt, was nominated from adjacent Noapara, where he will take on Trinankur Bhattacharya, the president of the TMC's student wing in the state.
The ticket for the Barrackpore assembly seat was awarded to lawyer Koustav Bagchi, a Congress turncoat, who will take on the TMC's incumbent Raj Chakraborty, a prominent director in the Tollygunge film industry.
Roopa Ganguly, interestingly, will contest against another popular actor from the TMC stables, Lovely Maitra, the sitting MLA from Sonarpur Dakshin.
The BJP fielded another popular actor in Bengali cinema and television, Papiya Adhikary, from Tollygunge, where she will fight senior TMC leader and minister Aroop Biswas, who won the seat in the previous four editions of the state polls.
Rajesh Kumar, a former IPS officer who retired as a director general from state police, had challenged the Union Public Service Commission's appointment of former DGP Rajiv Kumar and had moved the Central Administrative Tribunal, alleging that his exclusion from the eligibility panel was discriminatory and unreasonable.
While Rajiv Kumar has been nominated by the TMC to Rajya Sabha, Rajesh would now try his political luck against TMC's sitting MLA Somenath Shyam.
Among other important candidates finalized by the BJP in its second set of names is actor Sarbori Mukherjee from Jadavpur, who takes on TMC's incumbent MLA Debabrata Majumdar and CPI (M)'s senior lawyer and former Kolkata mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya from this prestigious seat.
BJP's own penchant for lawyers was reflected in the nominations of advocate Priyanka Tibrewal from the central Kolkata seat of Entally and the party's spokesperson Tarunjyoti Tewari from Rajarhat-Gopalpur, where he will contest TMC's crooner-cum-sitting MLA Aditi Munshi.
BJP's MLA from the Kharagpur Sadar seat, actor Hiranmoy Chatterjee (aka Hiran), was transferred to the Shyampur segment in Howrah district following the party's earlier announcement of fielding former state president Dilip Ghosh from the West Medinipur stronghold.
Among the other prominent faces awarded tickets on Thursday are senior leader and TMC turncoat, Tapas Roy, from Maniktala in north Kolkata, party's old-timer Ritesh Tewari from the city's Kashipur-Belgachhia seat, and Dibyendu Adhikari, former TMC MP and Suvendu Adhikari's brother, who switched over to the saffron camp in March 2024, from Egra in Purba Medinipur district.
Roy's contest with former TMC legislator Sadhan Pandey's daughter Shrreya Pandey in Maniktala will be among those keenly watched in the upcoming polls. So would be the fight between BJP's Yuva Morcha chief and oncologist Dr Indranil Khan and the TMC's incumbent legislator Ratna Chakraborty in Behala Paschim in the western fringes of Kolkata.
In its first phase, BJP had announced nominations for 144 seats. On Thursday, it replaced Agniswar Naskar, candidate for the Bishnupur seat in South 24 Parganas, with Viswajit Khan, while naming Biswajit Mahato as nominee supported by the party from the Joypur in Purulia seat in the same district.
With candidates for 38 seats still remaining to be finalised in Bengal and the first two lists comprising 31 women candidates, poll watchers say surprises could still be in store.
Elections in West Bengal will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29. Votes will be counted on May 4.