Bengal election 2021: Trinamool's Humayun Kabir and BJP's Bharati Ghosh will contest in Debra
West Bengal's Debra constituency in West Midnapore district will see a fierce contest between two former senior police officers, one from the Trinamool Congress and the other from its rival Bharatiya Janata Party.
Former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Humayun Kabir joined Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress after quitting as Chandannagar police commissioner last month. He has been named as the Trinamool candidate from Debra, 103 km from Kolkata.
One of his last official actions was the arrest of three BJP workers for shouting the infamous "goli maro (shoot them)" slogan at a BJP rally at Chandannagar, led by the BJP's Nandigram candidate Suvendu Adhikari, who quit the Trinamool just before election dates were announced.
Mr Kabir's rival from the BJP, Bharati Ghosh, is also a former IPS officer and she has been named as the BJP's candidate from Debra.
Ms Ghosh was earlier the police chief of adjoining Jhargram district, and known to be close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. During a public event, she had referred to the Chief Minister as "ma (mother)".
Ms Ghosh took early retirement and joined the BJP just before the Lok Sabha election in 2019.
The BJP today released the first list of candidates for the West Bengal election with 57 contenders.