The BJP, which published its fourth list of candidates for the Assembly polls on Tuesday, fielded 13 names.

With this, the BJP has to announce candidates for six more seats.

Among those who received tickets are Santosh Pathak, who recently defected from the Congress in Calcutta. He has been fielded from the Chowrangee Assembly seat.

In Cooch Behar, the BJP fielded Rajbanshi leaders Ashutosh Barman from Sitai and Girija Shankar Roy from Natabari, both leaders of the Bangshibadan Barman faction of the Greater Cooch Behar Peoples’ Association (GCPA), which has for years been demanding the greater Cooch Behar state.

While Ashutosh is the president of the GCPA’s Bangshibadan faction, Girija Shankar is its convener.

The development follows an event in Calcutta last week where senior BJP leaders, including leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and the party’s state chief Samik Bhattacharya, were present when Bangshibadan publicly extended support to the BJP for the 2026 Assembly elections. At the same event, Girija Shankar formally joined
the party.

Bangshibadan, known to have considerable clout among Rajbanshis, was earlier perceived to be close to the ruling Trinamool Congress and had even been seen campaigning with chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the past.

The BJP’s decision to field Ashutosh and Girija Shankar, however, has not gone down well with a section of BJP workers in Cooch Behar. BJP workers in Sitai staged a sit-in protest at the local party office, demanding the nominees be changed.

“We will not accept a ‘Greater’ candidate,” said Animesh Roy, a local BJP leader who joined the protests, referring to the GCPA. “The nomination must be changed. Our agitation will continue until the candidate is replaced.”

In the Mainaguri Assembly seat of Jalpaiguri, the BJP changed the candidate in the fourth list. Earlier, it announced Kaushik Roy, the sitting MLA, as the candidate, which led to protests across the constituency over how he was “never around”. Most party leaders and workers demanded a change, prompting the leadership to replace him with senior BJP leader Dalim Roy.

Trinamool scoffed at the BJP’s candidates.

Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, the Trinamool’s Cooch Behar MP, claimed the decisions hint at the fact that the BJP lacks proper faces and leaders.

“The BJP has fielded a former Congress leader who just joined the party in Calcutta. In north Bengal, they have fielded GCPA leaders. This shows that the party doesn’t have proper leaders who can contest the polls, or else, the party is not banking on them,”
said Basunia.