West Bengal Assembly Election 2026: BJP's 4th Candidate List Includes MoS Santanu Thakur's Wife, Maynaguri Candidate Replaced
BJP has changed its candidate from Maynaguri, MLA Kaushik Roy, dropped MLA Mihir Goswami from Natabari and fielded former Congress leader Santosh Pathak from Chowringhee.
Published : March 31, 2026 at 2:58 PM IST
Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released its fourth list of 13 candidates for the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026. With this, the party is left to declare candidates for six seats.
BJP has changed its candidate for Maynaguri (SC) consituency, replacing MLA Kaushik Roy with Dalim Roy, complying with the demands of its workers and supporters. The party has also dropped MLA Mihir Goswami from Natabari and fielded Girija Shankar Roy, who recently joined the BJP, from this seat. Former Congress councillor Santosh Pathak, who joined the BJP last week, has been fielded from Chowringhee constituency.
The list also includes former IPS officer Debashish Dhar from Sonarpur Uttar constituency, journalist Manab Guha from Memari and Soma Thakur, wife of Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Shantanu Thakur, from Bagda.
According to the list, Ashutosh Barma will contest from Sitai (SC), Uttam Kumar Banik from Magrahat East (SC), Debanshu Panda from Falta, Shyamal Hati from Howrah Dakshin, Ranjan Kumar Pal from Panchla, Piyush Kanti Das from Chandipur, Pradip Lodha from Garbeta and Arijit Roy from Barabani.
Earlier, after Kaushik Roy's name was announced as a candidate from Maynaguri, party workers locked the local party office and protests were launched. Kaushik Roy himself started campaigning after offering puja at Jalpesh and Jatileshwar temples with neither the party's mandal president nor any of its frontline leaders beside him.
The BJP workers argued that the Maynaguri seat was already within their grasp and no matter who replaced Kaushik Roy, the saffron party would definitely secure a victory. They alleged that the incumbent MLA had been conspicuously absent from the area over the past five years and had failed to stand by workers during their times of distress. They further claimed that the people of Maynaguri had been deprived of his presence and services throughout his five-year tenure.
BJP has released names of 144 candidates in the first list, 111 candidates in the second list, 19 candidates in the third list and now 13 candidates in the fourth list.
Elections in West Bengal will be held in two phases, on April 23 and 29, and counting of votes will be on May 4.
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