Kolkata, Mar 10 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday declared its first celebrity candidate -- Bengali actor Hiran Chatterjee -- who will be contesting from the Kharagpur Sadar Assembly constituency in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state, taking on Pradip Sarkar of the Trinamool Congress.
The party also pitted Supriti Chatterjee from Barjora in Bankura district, raising the number of women contestants to seven, out of 60 seats that will go to the polls in in the first two phases on March 27 and April 1.
Chatterjee is one of the Bengali cine stars to have recently joined the BJP, along with Rudranil Ghosh, Yash Dasgupta, Payel Sarkar, Srabanti Chatterjee and others.
Earlier, the BJP had announced its candidates' list for 58 Assembly seats where polling will be held in the first two phases.
BJP state unit President and Lok Sabha MP from Midnapore, Dilip Ghosh, had won from Kharagpur Sadar in 2016. He had vacated the seat after being elected as an MP in 2019. The BJP had lost the Kharagpur Sadar constituency to Trinamool Congress in Assembly bypoll held in December 2019.
The 294-member West Bengal Assembly will go to the polls in eight phases between March 27 and April 29. The counting will take place on May 2.