The BJP has released the candidate list of 27 names for the third phase and the list of 36 candidates for the fourth phase of West Bengal Assembly elections. Despite the party’s decision not to field any MP as Assembly candidate, some MPs’ names were announced as contestant against Trinamul Congress heavyweights.

The saffron party has fielded singer-turned-politician Union minister Babul Supriyo from the Tollygunge constituency. He will contest against Trinamul Congress heavyweight candidate and state cabinet minister Aroop Biswas. While Swapan Dasgupta is set to contest from Tarakeswar Assembly seat, BJP’s MP Locket Chatterjee will contest from Chinsurah Assembly constituency, BJP national general secretary Arun Singh announced.

Party sources said that Locket as a candidate of Assembly poll could influence the voters of other constituencies in Hooghly district due to her leadership quality and for that reason the party picked up her name as candidate.

Economist Ashok Lahiri will contest from Alipurduar, Rajib Banerjee from Domjur and Rabindranath Bhattacharya from Singur, MP Nisith Pramanik from Dinhata. Actor Yash Dasgupta will contest from Chanditala.

Unexpectedly, former KMC mayor and BJP’s state committee leader Sovan Chatterjee will not fight against his wife Ratna. Instead Tollywood actress Payel Sarkar has been selected as the candidate from Behala East. Sovan was winner from Behala East in earlier Assembly elections.

Anjana Basu, another actress from Tollywood, will contest from Sonarpur South Assembly constituency. Meanwhile BJP supporters were angry after veteran “master moshai” and pioneer of farmers’ movement against Tata Nano project was announced as a BJP candidate from Singur. Meanwhile the BJP faced an embarrassment, when Rantideb Sengupta, whose name has been announced as candidate from Howrah South, urged party to remove his name as a contestant.

“I want to take part only in BJP poll campaign. I have no desire to be a contestant. Even from the very beginning of the election process, I urged my party not to field me as a candidate,” he said.

Party sources said that there was a long discussion before to select the names of the candidates this time, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda took part.

“The party wants to create a huge pressure on the TMC regarding selection process for the candidates. They are keeping several poll strategies in their mind before announcing the name of the Assembly candidates,” a source said.

Meanwhile Sovan Chatterjee and Baishakhi Banerjee sent email to BJP’s national secretaries Shiv Prakash and Arvind Menon expressing their desire to resign from the party. Both are highly dissatisfied as the BJP announced actress Payel Sarkar as candidate from Behala East instead of fielding Baishakhi. BJP fielded actress Tanushree Chakraborty as candidate from Syampur. After speaking to some senior leader Rantideb Sengupta said he will contest from Howrah South.

Shah roadshow:

Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday held a colourful roadshow at Kharagpur in West Midnapore as he sought to bolster the BJP’s campaign in West Bengal ahead of the Assembly elections.

The road show, which commenced at the local BJP office Premhari Bhavan and concluded at Malancha petrol pump in the town, covered a distance of nearly 1 km.

Shah was accompanied by BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, party state unit president Dilip Ghosh and actor-cumparty’s candidate Hiran Chatterjee. Shah waved at the spectators and showered rose petals on the participants of the roadshow.

He will conduct a meeting with the party leaders tonight and address a public meeting at Jhargram tomorrow.