Darjeeling seat yet to be declared by BJP...State chief, Bharati on BJP list for Bengal The 4 include Arjun Singh, Anupam Hazra, Saumitra Khan and expelled youth leader Nisith Pramanik

The list of six newcomers included Khagen Murmu, who switched from the CPM, former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh (in picture) and four from the Trinamul camp. (ABP News)

TT, Kolkata, 22 March 2019: The BJP on Thursday announced candidates for 27 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, but the partial list lacked surprises as six newcomers who joined the party recently figured on the roster announced from Delhi.

“Our party had been campaigning against the misdeeds of these people for years… Now, we will have to campaign for them,” said a BJP insider.

The list of six newcomers included Khagen Murmu, who switched from the CPM, former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh and four from the Trinamul camp. The four include Arjun Singh, Anupam Hazra, Saumitra Khan and expelled youth leader Nisith Pramanik. The six will contest from Malda North, Ghatal, Barrackpore, Jadavpur, Bishnupur and Cooch Behar seats, respectively.

Nominees from the RSS stable — at least four of them — was the other talking point. “The candidates in Jalpaiguri (Jayanta Ray), Balurghat (Sukanta Majumdar), Burdwan East (Paresh Chandra Das) and Jhargram (Kunar Hembram) are from the RSS,” said a source.

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, the nominee from Midnapore, was an RSS pracharak before being inducted into the party.

The announcement of the list came as a relief for party leaders in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar as Monday is the last day to file nominations for the two seats where polls scheduled on April 11.

As the list did not include the name of the nominee for the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat — where the polls are due on April 18 — it was seen as an indication that central leaders were struggling to zero in on a candidate.

The Darjeeling seat has been represented by the BJP in the last two terms.