With the West Bengal Assembly elections just weeks away, the BJP unveiled its fourth list of 13 candidates on Tuesday. The names for six more constituencies are yet to be declared, with discussions still underway.
The fourth list includes key constituencies such as Sitai, Magrahat, and Garbeta, and names candidates such as Soma Thakur, Santosh Pathak, former IPS officer Debashis Dhar, and journalist Manav Guha. The BJP has also changed one of its candidates.
While Soma Thakur, the wife of Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Shantanu Thakur, has been fielded from Bagda in the North 24 Parganas district, Santosh Pathak, the former Congress councillor who joined the BJP last week, has been given a ticket from Chowrangee in the Kolkata district.
The BJP has changed its candidate in the Maynaguri constituency in Jalpaiguri district, replacing MLA Kaushik Roy’s name with that of Dalim Roy. MLA Mihir Goswami has been dropped from Natabari in the Cooch Behar district, and Girija Shankar Roy, who recently joined the BJP, has been fielded from the seat.
The other candidates include Shyamal Hati from Howrah Dakshin, Ashutosh Barma from Sitai, Uttam Kumar Banik from Magrahat Purba, Debangshu Panda from Falta, Debashis Dhar from Sonarpur Uttar, and Ranjan Kumar Paul from Panchla.
The BJP had earlier released its first list of 144 candidates, which included heavyweight names such as Suvendu Adhikari (contesting from both Nandigram and Bhabanipur), Agnimitra Paul from Asansol Dakshin, and Dilip Ghosh from Kharagpur Sadar.
The second list largely covered constituencies in North Bengal—Mekliganj, Dhupguri, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, and Darjeeling—along with seats in Murshidabad and Nadia. It also featured several SC/ST candidates in reserved constituencies, underscoring the party’s focus on expanding social coalitions in the state.
In the third list of 19 candidates, the BJP fielded the mother of the RG Kar rape‑and‑murder victim from Panihati, among others.
Assembly elections will be held in two phases in West Bengal, on April 23 and April 29. The results will be announced on May 4.