Kamal Ghorui
KOLKATA/DARJEELING: BJP released its second list of 111 candidates for Bengal, placing faith in familiar faces – former MPs, sitting MLAs and veterans – while ditching long-time ally Gorkha National Liberation Front in three seats of Darjeeling-Kalimpong hills, report Rohit Khanna & Roshan Gupta.Former MPs Nisith Pramanik (Mathabhanga), Arjun Singh (Noapara), Roopa Ganguly (Sonarpur Dakshin) and Dibyendu Adhikari (Egra) made the cut, as did Ashok Kirtania (Bongaon Uttar), Swapan Majumdar (Bongaon Dakshin) and Subrata Thakur (Gaighata) in a list of eight sitting MLAs. Other prominent names to receive nominations include Ritesh Tiwari (Kashipur-Belgachhia), Priyanka Tibrewal (Entally) and Sanjay Singh (Bally).
Former IPS officer Rajesh Kumar, whom the Election Commission had appointed Kolkata Police commissioner for 50 days during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, got the ticket for Jagatdal. The 1990-batch officer retired as principal secretary of the dept of mass education and library services.BJP’s second list has 14 women, taking the total so far to 25. Rekha Patra, the face of BJP’s Sandeshkhali agitation against arrested and suspended Trinamool strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, will contest from Hingalganj.In the hills, prospective candidates from ally GNLF weren’t picked for any of the three constituencies – Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong. The Subhash Ghising-founded party has been an NDA constituent for a decade but has since been delisted by EC, leaving its aspiring candidates dependent on BJP. GNLF’s secretary general Neeraj Zimba won Darjeeling in the 2021 polls as a BJP nominee. Previously, he won a 2019 bypoll on the lotus symbol.BJP nominated former Indian hockey captain Bharat Chetri for Kalimpong and accommodated GNLF’s rival Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in Darjeeling, fielding its youth central general secretary Noman Rai. The Kurseong ticket went to Sonam Lama, the local BJP block president.GNLF central panel spokesperson Y Lama said his party wasn’t even consulted. “Our central committee will decide the future course of action.”Kharagpur Sadar MLA Hiran Chattopadhyay, whose seat had been allotted to former state unit chief Dilip Ghosh, has been fielded in Shyampur. Tapas Roy, who won Maniktala on a Trinamool ticket in 2021 and defected to BJP ahead of unsuccessfully contesting Kolkata North in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, has been fielded in his old constituency. Roopa Ganguly has been fielded from Sonarpur Dakshin.On the Kurmi front, BJP decided to support independent candidate Biswajit Mahato in Joypur, Purulia. In its first list, the party had nominated Rajesh Mahato, former Kurmi Samaj state president, from Gopiballavpur. Both Rajesh and Ajit have been pushing for ST status for the Kurmi community and inclusion of Kurmali in the Eighth Schedule.
