Bengal polls: BJP announces second list of candidates

NEW DELHI: Gearing with all its ammunitions for the battle of Bengal, BJP has fielded a central minister and at least three sitting members of Parliament for the assembly polls on Sunday, when the party released a list of 63 names for the state.
Central minister of state and Asansol MP, Babul Supriyo and two Lok Sabha members from the party Locket Chatterjee and Nishith Pramanik were among those who nominated for assembly contests in the state.Veteran journalist and sitting Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta has been nominated for his first ever electoral contest from the Tarakeshwar constituency.
Former chief economic advisor for the government of India, Ashok Lahiri, as well as five sitting MPs were among the BJP list released on Sunday. Lahiri will be contesting the Alipurduar seat in north Bengal. He has also served as chairman of the Kolkata-based Bandhan Bank and was member of the Finance Commission from 2017 to 2020.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, party general secretary Arun Singh along with Union ministers Supriyo and Debasree Chaudhuri released the names of 63 candidates for Bengal assembly polls, 17 candidates each for Assam and Tamil Nadu and 112 for the elections in Kerala.
Singh said the party will contest in 115 out of 140 assembly seats in Kerala and on remaining seats its allies will field their candidates.
Supriyo is BJP's candidate from the Tollygunge seat and LS MPs Nishit Pramanik and Locket Chatterjee have been fielded from from Dinhata and Chunchura seats respectively.
Outgoing MLA of Singur and veteran leader Rabindranath Bhattacharya, who had crossed over from Trinamool Congress after it denied him ticket, has been fielded from the same seat by BJP.
The party has given tickets to several Bengali film personalities, including Tanushree Chakraborty from Shyampur, Payal Sarkar from Behala Purba and actor Yash Dasgupta from Chanditala in Kolkata.