West Bengal: BJP prioritise both homegrown leaders and defectors from TMC and CPM in first list 

There were murmurs of discontent in the West Bengal BJP over the possibility that preference would be given to defectors from other parties in the candidate list for the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats.
BJP MP and Bollywood actress Hema Malini celebrating Holi at her house in Vrindavan | PTI
BJP MP and Bollywood actress Hema Malini celebrating Holi at her house in Vrindavan | PTI

KOLKATA: There were murmurs of discontent in the West Bengal BJP over the possibility that preference would be given to defectors from other parties in the candidate list for the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats.

However, the party’s central leadership has silenced those whispers by giving equal priority to both homegrown leaders and defectors from the Trinamool Congress and CPM in its first list released on Thursday in which it has announced the names of 28 candidates in West Bengal.

While state BJP president Dilip Ghosh will contest from Medinipur seat—a segment of which he represents as Kharagpur MLA—against local TMC strongman Manas Bhunia, Union Minister Babul Supriyo, the sitting MP from Asansol, will again make a Lok Sabha bid from there, and take on TMC’s celebrity candidate Moon Moon Sen. While BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha will battle TMC heavyweight Sudip Bandopadhyay in Kolkata North, state BJP vice-president and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s descendant Chandra Kumar Bose will contest from Kolkata South.

Former Paschim Medinipur SP Bharati Ghosh, who fell out with Mamata Banerjee and joined the BJP, will take on actor and sitting TMC MP Deepak Adhikari in Ghatal, where a case of extortion and gold smuggling is pending against Ghosh.

TMC turncoat and MP Anupam Hazra will contest from Jadavpur, whereas another TMC defector, MP Saumitra Khan, got the BJP ticket from Bishnupur.

While TMC MLA Arjun Singh, who quit the party after being denied party ticket from Barrackpore seat, got the BJP ticket from the same constituency, defecting CPM MLA Khagen Murmu will be taken on TMC’s new heavyweight Mausam Benazir Noor, who defected from the Congress, in Malda Uttar.

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