The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its first list of candidates who will contest 144 seats in the Assembly elections in West Bengal.
The elections across 294 constituencies will be conducted in two phases—152 of them will go to the polls on April 23, while the remaining 142 will be put to the test on April 29.
The votes will be counted with the three other states and one UT also conducting Assembly elections on May 4.
BJP announces first list of 144 candidates for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly Elections pic.twitter.com/QHLfHAUNFF
— ANI (@ANI) March 16, 2026
The most significant name in the BJP's first list is Suvendu Adhikari, who is set to contest the elections from two seats—his stronghold of Nandigram, and Bhabhanipur, which is Mamata Banerjee's constituency.
This likely pits Adhikari, who was once a close aide to Mamata Banerjee before switching to the BJP, against the West Bengal Chief Minister.
The high-profile showdown between the two leaders will now depend on Trinamool Congress (TMC) releasing their first list of candidates for the elections.
Notably, Bhabhanipur was the seat where CM Banerjee contested the 2021 elections and won, retaining her place at the helm of the state for a third time. However, the same elections saw her lose to Adhikari at the Nandigram seat by 1,956 votes.
The 2021 West Bengal elections saw the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC secure 215 seats, while the BJP became the official Opposition party with 77 seats.
Adhikari taking a cue from her 2021 playbook is widely seen as a bold move to meet the CM on her own turf in the hopes of unseating her.
Other prominent faces in the BJP's first list include former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, who will contest from Rashbehari, Dilip Ghosh from Kharagpur Sadar, Bapan Ghosh from Kaliganj, Agnimitra Paul from her own constituency of Asansol Dakshin, and Shankar Ghosh from Siliguri.
10 women candidates have also been included in the list.
With inputs from Prema Rajaram
