Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram in the 2021 election, will contest from both his current constituency and Bhabanipur, the chief minister’s home turf where she is expected to be nominated again.

The move appears the BJP’s way of throwing the gauntlet at the Trinamool chief, much as Mamata had done in 2021 by taking Suvendu on in his Nandigram citadel. The chief minister had, however, not played it safe — she had contested only from one seat.

A few months after her narrow defeat in Nandigram, Mamata got herself voted to the Assembly from Bhabanipur in a by-election.

The leader of the Opposition’s name features against both constituencies on the BJP’s first candidate list of 144, released on Monday evening.

“This is the first time in recent memory in Bengal that the party has fielded one candidate from two seats,” a senior BJP leader in Calcutta said.

“That makes him the most important candidate on the first list. We now want to see whether Mamata contests from Bhabanipur and whom Trinamool fields from Nandigram.”

Another BJP source said that fielding a candidate from two seats is rare for the BJP, but underlined that Narendra Modi had contested from both Varanasi and Vadodara in 2014. “So, you can understand the importance of Suvenduda in the party,” he said.

Nandigram votes on April 23 and Bhabanipur on April 29.

A source said the Bhabanipur seat, which Mamata had represented almost uninterrupted since 2011, had become challenging for her with the SIR deleting about 47,000 names — more than a fifth of the total — in the constituency. Another 14,154 names are on the “under adjudication” list. As of February 28, Bhabanipur’s electorate stands at 159,201.

A BJP source said that by fielding Suvendu from Bhabanipur, the party wanted to increase the pressure on Mamata and confine her to the constituency longer than she would have liked.

Reports suggest that Trinamool, too, might field a “special” candidate from Nandigram to try and keep Suvendu under pressure. Bengal’s ruling party is expected to publish a candidate list on Tuesday.

“Initially, the party had planned to field Suvendu only from Bhabanipur. But he insisted that he would not abandon the people of Nandigram who had helped him defeat Mamata,” a BJP leader said.

“Eventually, at a meeting with Modi in Delhi on March 13, the decision to field him from two seats was taken.”

Political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty said that contesting from two seats would provide Suvendu with a challenge as well as opportunity.

“If he can defeat Mamata again, from Bhabanipur this time, and the BJP comes to power, it would be difficult for the party to ignore him for the chief minister’s post,” he said. “But a defeat will impact his political career.”

Chakraborty, however, said the fun would begin only after Trinamool announced its candidates. “If Mamata contests from both Bhabanipur and Nandigram against Suvendu, we will see a battle of nerves between two heavyweights,” he said.

A BJP source said that keeping in mind Suvendu’s victory over Mamata in 2021, the party had decided nearly six months ago that he would be fielded from whichever seat the chief minister contested in 2026. Since then, Suvendu had repeatedly declared in public that he would defeat Mamata from wherever she filed her nomination.

After reports suggested that Mamata would contest from Bhabanipur, the BJP asked Suvendu to concentrate on the seat. Suvendu too began making regular visits to Bhabanipur to strengthen the organisation there. He was in Bhabanipur even on the day of Holi.

Trinamool leaders claimed that Suvendu’s double nomination betrayed his and his party’s lack of self-confidence.

“He will certainly be defeated from both seats. He chose to fight from Bhabanipur to derive some publicity piggybacking the chief minister,” party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

The BJP has fielded former state president Dilip Ghosh from Kharagpur Sadar.

Ticket snub

The BJP did not give tickets to eight sitting MLAs, including Ashok Lahiri (Balurghat) and Hiran Chattopadhyay (Kharagpur Sadar). It has denied tickets to Madhusudan Bag from Arambagh and Biswanath Karak from Goghat.