BJP's Bengal first list out, Netaji's grandnephew to take on Mamata

The BJP on Wednesday announced the first list of 52 candidates for the upcoming assembly election in West Bengal and pitched Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Bose will be the BJP candidate for the Bhowanipore assembly constituency, which Trinamool Congress Chief won comfortably in the last election.

"Chandra Kumar Bose, the grandnephew of Netaji, would be the BJP candidate against Mamata Banerjee in the West Bengal assembly polls," union HRD Minister Smriti Irani announced in New Delhi.

Asked whether Bose will be the party's chief ministerial candidate, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya said: "It has not been decided but he will contesting against Mamata Banerjee."

The 55-year-old Bose, grandson of Netaji's elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose, on January 25 formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of its president Amit Shah at a public rally in Kolkata's neighbouring Howrah district.

The Congress has decided to name its state unit general secretary and Jadavpur University professor Om Prakash Mishra against Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo.

Later, after the meeting of BJP's central election committee, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and president Amit Shah, the party announced a list of 52 candidates, including five women.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh will contest from Kharagpur Sadar seat in Kharagpur.