The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its first list of candidates for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026, naming 144 nominees for the polls. The announcement came a day after the Election Commission of India unveiled the schedule for assembly elections in four states and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The party’s candidate list includes several prominent leaders across the state. Among the notable names are Suvendu Adhikari, Dilip Ghosh, Rudranil Ghosh, Ashok Dinda and Agnimitra Paul.
Bengal Polls To Be Held in Two Phases
The Election Commission has scheduled voting in West Bengal in two phases — on April 23 and April 29. This is a significant reduction from the eight-phase polling process used during the 2021 assembly elections.
Counting of votes will take place on May 4 along with results for the assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Why Did EC Reduce the Number of Phases?
Asked why the number of phases in West Bengal has come down from eight to just two, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said the poll body had had detailed deliberation and found it necessary to reduce the number of phases and bring it down to an extent where it was convenient for everybody.
Full List of 144 BJP Candidates
The BJP’s first list includes the following candidates:
- Sukumar Roy
- Savitri Barman
- Ajay Roy
- Malati Rava Roy
- Manoj Kumar Oraon
- Bishal Lama
- Paritosh Das
- Deepak Barman
- Sikha Chatterjee
- Puna Bhengra
- Anandamay Barman
- Shankar Ghosh
- Durga Murmu
- Sarjit Biswas
- Manoj Jain
- Biraj Biswas
- Utpal Maharaj
- Kaushik Chowdhury
- Tapas Chandra Roy
- Suvendu Sarkar
- Bidyut Roy
- Budhrai Tudu
- Satyendra Nath Rai
- Debabrata Majumder
- Joyel Murmu
- Chinmoy Deb Barman
- Ratan Das
- Ashish Das
- Abhishek Singhania
- Gaur Chandra Mandal
- Gopal Chandra Saha
- Nibaran Ghosh
- Abhiraj Chaudhary
- Mahabir Ghosh
- Surjit Poddar
- Amar Kumar Das
- Bhaskar Sarkar
- Gouri Sankar Ghosh
- Bapan Ghosh
- Bharat Kumar Jhawar
- Subrata Maitra
- Tanmoy Biswas
- Rana Mandal
- Nanda Dulal Pal
- Naba Kumar Sarkar
- Samarendranath Ghosh
- Anima Dutta
- Bapan Ghosh
- Parthasarathi Chatterjee
- Ashim Biswas
- Bankim Chandra Ghosh
- Asim Kumar Sarkar
- Sukriti Sarkar
- Arindam Dey
- Sumitro Chaterjee
- Pawan Kumar Singh
- Sajal Ghosh
- Tarun Kanti Ghosh
- Narayan Chandra Mondal
- Bikash Sardar
- Madhabi Mahalder
- Asit Kumar Haldar
- Deepankar Jana
- Palash Rana
- Ashim Sapui
- Dipak Kumar Halder
- Agniswar Naskar
- Tarun Kumar Adak
- Veer Bahadur Singh
- Suvendu Adhikari
- Swapan Das Gupta
- Umesh Rai
- Rudranil Ghosh
- Mangalanand Puri Maharaj
- Amit Samanta
- Gobinda Hazra
- Swaraj Ghosh
- Santu Pan
- Biman Ghosh
- Hemanta Bag
- Prashanta Dighar
- Susanta Ghosh
- Subrata Maity
- Sintu Senapati
- Ashok Dinda
- Subhash Panja
- Suvendu Adhikari
- Tapan Maity
- Sumita Sinha
- Arup Kumar Das
- Chandra Sekhar Mondal
- Ajit Kumar Jana
- Pradip Kumar Bijoli
- Lakshmikant Sahu
- Bhadra Hembrem
- Amiya Kisku
- Rajesh Mahto
- Dilip Ghosh
- Rama Prasad Giri
- Amal Panda
- Tapan Bhuya
- Shubhashish Om
- Tapan Dutta
- Sital Kapat
- Sukanta Dolui
- Biman Mahto
- Suvendu Samanta
- Pranat Tudu
- Labsen Baske
- Jaladhar Mahto
- Moyna Murmu
- Kamalkanta Hansda
- Nadiar Chand Bauri
- Mamoni Bauri
- Chandana Bauri
- Satyanarayan Mukhopadhyay
- Kshudiram Tudu
- Kshetra Mohan Hansda
- Souvik Patra
- Billeshwar Singha
- Amarnath Shakha
- Laxmikanta Majumdar
- Nirmal Kumar Dhara
- Dibakar Gharami
- Subhash Patra
- Arun Halder
- Saikat Panja
- Sanjay Das
- Soumen Karfa
- Anadi Ghosh
- Kalita Maji
- Jitendra Kumar Tewari
- Chandra Shekhar Banerjee
- Lakshman Chandra Ghorui
- Bijan Mukherjee
- Agnimitra Paul
- Krishnendu Mukherjee
- Ajay Kumar Poddar
- Anup Kumar Saha
- Jagannath Chattopadhyay
- Dilip Kumar Ghosh
- Khokan Das
- Dudh Kumar Mondal
- Nikhil Banerjee
With the announcement of candidates, the BJP has formally kicked off its campaign preparations for the high-stakes West Bengal Assembly elections, where the party will seek to expand its presence in the state legislature.