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BJP fields Rakesh Singh from Kolkata Port seat hours after release from jail
Kolkata Port is set for a high-stakes battle between Rakesh Singh and Kolkata mayor and state cabinet minister Firhad Hakim, who has held the seat since 2011
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday released its sixth and final list for the West Bengal assembly polls, naming Rakesh Singh as its candidate for the Kolkata Port seat.
The announcement comes just a day after Singh was released on bail on Tuesday. A day earlier, a bench of justice Kausik Chanda of the Calcutta high court granted him bail till May 5 after lawyers representing the BJP said the party intended to field him in the state elections.
Kolkata Port is set for a high-stakes battle between Rakesh Singh and Kolkata mayor and state cabinet minister Firhad Hakim, who has held the seat since 2011, when the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress first came to power in West Bengal.
The constituency, which heads to the polls in the final phase on April 29, remains a Trinamool Congress (TMC) stronghold.
Rakesh Singh, who was previously in the West Bengal Congress before he was expelled in 2018, was arrested by Kolkata Police last year in connection with an assault case that also led to the arrest of his two sons and daughter in October 2025. Singh was remanded in judicial custody at the Presidency Correction Home at the time.
During proceedings in the high court, the state government had opposed the bail petition, alleging Singh was a “history sheeter” and an accused in over 50 criminal cases.
After his release, Singh declared that once the BJP came to power, it would “put an end to all extortion rackets in Bengal. I always fought for justice.”
BJP state unit president Samik Bhattacharya said Singh was arrested because he tried to stop some people from taking over his family temple. “Even his daughter had to spend three nights in jail. People can understand what’s going on if they study the charges pressed against him,” Bhattacharya said, defending the party’s choice.
The BJP announced its first list of candidates on March 16, naming 144 candidates for Bengal’s 294 seats. With Wednesday’s sixth list, the party has announced all 294 names, including three non-BJP nominees it backs.
Muslims are in the majority in the eight municipal wards that form the Kolkata Port seat, which was known as Garden Reach before delimitation. All parties, except the BJP, have fielded Muslim candidates.
Between 1952 and 2021, only two Hindu candidates, Communist Party of India’s Arun Sen and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Chhedi Lal Singh, had won the seat in the 60’s and 70’s.
