Netaji's grandnephew to take on Mamata in Bengal polls

New Delhi/Kolkata: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose will be the BJP candidate for the Bhowanipore assembly constituency where he will take on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the upcoming state assembly polls.

"Chandra Kumar Bose, the grandnephew of Netaji, would be the BJP candidate against Mamata Banerjee in the West Bengal assembly polls," union HRD Minister Smriti Irani announced in New Delhi.

She said the entire candidate list for the 294 seat assembly polls in the state would be declared later in the day.

Asked whether Bose will be the party's chief ministerial candidate, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya said: "It has not been decided but he will contesting against Mamata Banerjee."

The 55-year-old Bose, grandson of Netaji's elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose, on January 25 formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of its president Amit Shah at a public rally in Kolkata's neighbouring Howrah district.

The Congress has decided to name its state unit general secretary and Jadavpur University professor Om Prakash Mishra against Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo.