BJP releases third list of 19 candidates for Bengal, RG Kar victim’s mother among contestants| India News
The Bharatiya Janata Party released third list of candidates on Wednesday for the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal. Among those fielded named in the third list is also the mother of the RG Kar medical college student who was raped and murdered. She has been fielded from Panihati constituency.
The BJP named 19 candidates in its latest list for the assembly polls for 294 seats in West Bengal.
The polls in West Bengal will be conducted in two phases on April 23 and April 29 and the counting will be done on May 4.
Last week on Thursday, BJP released its second list and named 111 candidates with former union minister Nisith Pramanik contesting from the Mathabhanga assembly seat and former Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly was fielded from Sonarpur Dakshin.
Before that, the BJP had announced 144 candidates in its first list and named West Bengal’s Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram, where he defeated Mamata Banerjee in 2021, as well as from Bhabanipur, which is currently represented by the TMC chief.
‘Joined BJP to overthrow TMC’
The RG Kar medical college’s rape victim’s mother, before the announcement of the BJP’s third list of candidates, had said that she has been in talks with the BJP to contest the upcoming polls and that initially she was hesitant but eventually joined the party to “overthrow” Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.
“It wasn’t a last-minute decision. From the beginning, they were telling us, but I was not ready. But then I realised that for women’s safety and security, and the corruption that has spread in every aspect of Bengal, no one is happy, and so to overthrow the TMC, I joined the BJP,” she told reporters, as quoted in an Indian Express report dated March 19, 2026.
“I had only called and said I want to be a candidate. The fight for justice has become tough. All parties have made offers, but to get justice, we need to stay with the BJP. We are still unhappy with CBI as they are not working. I don’t want what happened to my daughter to ever happen to another woman,” she added.
