The Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, is set to file his nomination from the Bhabanipur constituency in South Kolkata as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be present during the nomination filing. Ahead of this event, Amit Shah arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday night and will join Adhikari in a mega roadshow within the Bhabanipur constituency.
The roadshow is scheduled to commence from Hazra intersection at noon. Following the roadshow, Adhikari will submit his nomination at the Alipore Survey Building. The convoy will halt 200 meters before the building, after which Amit Shah and Adhikari will cover the remaining distance on foot. Adhikari will then proceed to file his nomination papers.
In the upcoming elections, Adhikari will face the sitting Trinamool Congress legislator and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Bhabanipur constituency. Adhikari is also contesting from his native constituency of Nandigram simultaneously. Notably, Adhikari had previously defeated Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 elections by a margin of under 2,000 votes.
The contest in Bhabanipur has garnered significant attention due to the face-off between the Chief Minister and the Leader of Opposition. Moreover, the reduction in the number of voters in Bhabanipur, with 47,000 names removed from the final voters’ list, has added to the electoral dynamics. Mamata Banerjee has criticized the Election Commission of India for the mass deletion of voters but remains confident of victory, even if by a narrow margin.
