In the first stage of ‘battle royale’ in Nandigram, chief minister Mamata Banerjee today led a massive rally before filing her nomination. To counter her, BJP will launch a mega roadshow on 12 March in the same route when Suvendu Adhikari files his nomination.

Bollywood superstar Mithun Chakraborty, Union Cabinet minister Smriti Irani and Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan will join the roadshow.

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Earlier, Mithun had announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Brigade rally that he will start his campaign from 12 March but didn’t disclose from where.

The party has also prepared a list of 40 star campaigners for the first phase of the election which includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh and other central ministers who will soon plunge into huge campaigns in several Assembly constituencies.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Madha Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, national leader Shahnawaz Hussain, actor Manoj Tiwari, Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly will also join the campaign here for first phase of polling.

Shah is slated to visit the state on 15 and 19 March as was indicated earlier when his visit was deferred because of humongous preparations ahead of Modi’s Brigade rally. But specifically where he will visit is still unclear.

Tollywood stars Yash Dasgupta, Srabanti Chatterjee, Payal Sarkar and Hiran are included as star campaigners. Key leaders like Rajib Banerjee, Amit Malviya, Babul Supriyo, Locket Chatterjee are also in the list.

Meanwhile, the BJP today named Tollywood actor Hiran Chatterjee, who recently joined the party, as its candidate from Kharagpur Sadar Assembly seat, ending speculations whether party’s Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh will be fielded from there.

The party has also fielded Supriti Chatterjee from Barjora seat, increasing the number of women candidates to seven. Ghosh had won from Kharagpur Sadar in 2016, but vacated the seat after being elected as Midnapore MP in 2019. Later, BJP lost the Kharagpur Sadar seat in the by-election in December 2019.