BJP to finalise candidates for West Bengal, Assam assembly elections, TMC’s first list may come today

New Delhi: The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the BJP will deliberate on Friday to finalise party candidates for the first two phases of the Assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam. 

The members of the CEC, which included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Sinh, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, senior leader BL Santosh, also met on Thursday evening to discuss the names of probable candidates.

Among others who attended the meeting held at the party headquarters were Thawar Chand Gehlot, Jual Oram, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Bihar minister Shahnawaz Hussain.

Sources said the CEC is likely to finalise candidates for the seats that will go to the polls in the first two phases – (60) in West Bengal and (86) in Assam - of Assembly elections on March 27 and April 1.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonawal, party state in-charge Baijayant Panda and other senior leaders were present at the meeting, besides Assam poll in-charge Narendra Singh Tomar and co-incharge Jitendra Singh.

From West Bengal, party state in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya, state unit chief Dilip Ghosh, Union Ministers Babul Supriyo and Debasree Chaudhary, national Vice President Mukul Roy, Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee were present at the meeting.

It has also emerged that ahead of the Assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address 20 rallies in poll-bound West Bengal, responding to the huge demand of local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of these two states. 

According to sources, the rallies are planned in such a way that all the 23 districts of West Bengal will be covered in these rallies. BJP functionaries including Kailash Vijayvargiya, national General Secretary, Mukul Roy, national Vice-President, Sanjay Singh, General Secretary and Swapan Dasgupta, MP, Rajya Sabha are looking into the preparations at Brigade Parade Ground, where PM Modi will address a public meeting on March 7 at Brigade Ground, Kolkata. 

This will be PM Modi's first rally in West Bengal post the announcement of election dates by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is also expected to release the first list of TMC candidates for the upcoming assembly polls today.

Ahead of the West Bengal assembly election, Trinamool Congress leaders held a meeting with ward presidents and coordinators in Kolkata on Thursday. Party leaders Abhishek Banerjee, Partha Chatterjee were among those present in the meeting at TMC Bhawan in Kolkata. The agenda of the meeting was to make the wards stronger. The party decided to put more flags and hoardings in the areas.

West Bengal Assembly elections will be held in eight phases starting from March 27 with the final round of voting taking place on April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.

West Bengal is likely to witness a triangular contest this time with TMC, Congress-Left alliance and BJP in the fray. While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is seeking her third consecutive term, BJP has set a target of winning 200 seats in the 294-member state Assembly. 

Congress and the Left have stitched the alliance for the polls and had already finalised the seat-sharing agreement. They are also in touch with the Indian Secular Front (ISF), recently floated by influential minority leader Abbas Siddique.

In the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections, out of the 294 seats, Congress had managed to win 44 seats while the Left Front bagged 33 seats. The ruling TMC secured 211 seats and the BJP had won 3 seats.

The BJP made deep inroads in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections winning 18 seats and reducing TMC's tally to 22. Out of the total 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal, Congress won two seats, the Left drew a blank.

After BJP's performance in the 2019 polls, several TMC leaders have joined the party led by JP Nadda.

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