Kolkata: Barely 24 hours after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced poll schedules for West Bengal, three other states and one UT, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) threw down the gauntlet at ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC).
In its first list of candidates released on Monday for next month’s West Bengal Assembly elections, the saffron party threw a direct challenge at TMC by fielding senior leader Suvendu Adhikari from the high-profile Bhabanipur constituency, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s home turf.
Adhikari, who was once a close aide of Mamata before he switched to the BJP in December 2020, has been nominated from Bhabanipur as well as Nandigram, his home constituency.
In the 2021 state Assembly polls, Mamata had challenged Suvendu by deciding to contest from Nandigram. In a cliffhanger, Suvendu edged out Mamata by a margin of 1,956 votes in the prestigious battle even as TMC swept to a third straight term with a sweeping victory.
The chief minister was later forced to move to Bhabanipur, from where she won the by-election by over 50,000 votes.
This time, BJP has gone on the front foot and adopted an aggressive policy.
It remains to be seen whether Mamata accepts Suvendu’s challenge and fights from Bhabanipur, or avoids a direct confrontation to choose a safer seat.
BJP’s list, which includes 10 female candidates, was finalised at a meeting of the party’s central election committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended by senior leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
Voting in West Bengal will be held in two phases, on April 23 and 29. The counting of votes for West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry polls will be held on May 4.
