BJP releases 5th list for Bengal polls,292 candidates declared so far

The BJP on Saturday announced its fifth list of five candidates for the West Bengal Assembly elections. According to the list, Saurav Sikdar will contest from Dum Dum Uttar, Taraknath Chatterjee (Krishnanagar Uttar), Anupam Biswas (Kalyani), Anindya Raju Banerjee (Madhyamgram), and Rudraprasad Banerjee from Uluberia Purba. Saurav Sikdar is the nephew of senior BJP leader and former Union minister Tapan Sikdar, while Anindya Raju Banerjee, a former state vice-president, had unsuccessfully contested from Kamarhati in the 2021 Assembly polls. He had remained on the sidelines for the past three years but became active after Samik Bhattacharya took over as party state president.Additionally, the party has also changed its candidates in three seats. Kaushik Sidharth will now contest from Basirhat Uttar, Abhijit Sardar from Bishnupur, and Shankar Sikdar from Behala Purba.
With this, the BJP has declared 292 of its candidates. The party had released its first of 144 candidates on March 16, fielding Suvendu Adhikari from Bhabanipur and Nandigram, and Dilip Ghosh from Kharagpur. Agnimitra Paul and Swapan Dasgupta were also fielded from Asansol South and Rashbehari.  Three days later on March 19, it declared 111 more candidates in which former Union MoS Nishit Pramanik was fielded from Mathabhanga, Dibendu Adhikari from Egra, and Shankar Adhikari from Chopra. The third list of 19 candidates and the fourth list of 13 contestants were released on March 25 and March 31, respectively. It must be mentioned here that the ruling TMC has already declared all of its 294 candidates. This year, the assembly elections will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 4.