West Bengal Elections 2026: BJP releases fifth list; 292 candidates declared till now | Check here

Kolkata:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday evening five more candidates for the two-phase assembly elections in West Bengal, where it is hoping to dislodge Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) from power. 

As per the list, the party has fielded Taraknath Chatterjee from Krishnanagar Uttar, Anupam Biswas from Kalyani, Saurav Sikdar from Dum Dum Uttar, Anindya Raju Banerjee from Madhyamgram, and Rudraprasad Banerjee from Uluberia Purba. 

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.

292 BJP candidates declared so far

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.

BJP's bid to end TMC rule

The saffron party is aiming to end the TMC rule in West Bengal, which has been in power since 2011. In the 2016 elections, the party's performance was dismal after it won just three seats. However, this tally significantly increased in the 2021 elections, with the BJP emerging as the second largest party after winning 77 seats.

The biggest moment for the BJP in the 2021 polls was party leader Suvendu Adhikari defeating Banerjee in the Nandigram constituency, which had forced the TMC supremo to contest a byelection from the Bhabanipur seat later to get elected to the 294-member West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

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. 

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