Hours after the BJP announced its first list of 144 candidates for the West Bengal Assembly elections on Monday, party workers unhappy with some choices publicly expressed their anger.

In Alipurduar, where the BJP named Paritosh Das as the candidate, a section of workers vandalised a local party office on Monday night. They also protested by burning a tyre on the road, alleging that Das was close to the ruling Trinamool Congress and had no link with the BJP.

“Ask Das who the local BJP leaders are here. He does not even know any of the names,” one of the protesting BJP workers said.

Another BJP worker, Rana Das, told reporters, “We do not want Paritosh Das as the candidate. We will continue the protest until the party changes the candidate.”

Alipurduar district BJP president Mithu Das said the party’s state leadership would be informed of the workers’ concerns.

In Purba Medinipur district’s Mahishadal constituency, BJP leaders Vishwanath Banerjee and Deepak Kumar Jana are reluctant to accept Subhash Panja, a businessman and a new face in the party, as the candidate. They warned they would leave the party and wrote to BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya and the district chief about their objection to the candidate choice, according to sources.

Vishwanath Banerjee, a member of the BJP’s Tamluk organisational district, was the candidate from the constituency last time. Deepak was the general secretary of Mahishadal mandal-5.

The BJP released the candidates’ list within 24 hours of the election dates announcement on Sunday.

Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari has been fielded both from Nandigram and from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhawanipore constituency.

Agnimitra Paul from Asansol Dakshin, Shankar Ghosh from Siliguri, and Ashok Dinda from Moyna have retained their seats. Former state BJP president Dilip Ghosh has returned to Kharagpur Sadar, while former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta will contest the polls in Rashbehari. While Jiten Tiwari has been fielded from Pandabeswar, Sajal Ghosh is the candidate for the Baranagar seat and Ashim Sarkar for Haringhata.

West Bengal will vote in two phases, on April 23 and 29.