India, March 17 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released its first list of 144 candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls, fielding leader of the Opposition in the assembly Suvendu Adhikari from Mamata Banerjee's current seat of Bhawanipore in south Kolkata as well as from his traditional bastion of Nandigram where he defeated the chief minister in 2021.

The list, released a day after two-phase polls were announced in the eastern state, also fielded former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta from Rashbehari in south Kolkata, former state unit chief Dilip Ghosh from his earlier seat of Kharagpur Sadar in West Midnapore district, and designer-turned-politician Agnimitra Paul from Asansol South.

In all, the party dropped two la...