Kolkata: Announcing the name of the candidates for the West Bengal Assembly polls, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she will be contesting from the Nandigram constituency as announced earlier.
Addressing a press conference in Kolkata, Banerjee said she will contest from Nandigram and not from Bhowanipore which has been her home constituency, since 2011.
"I will contest from Nandigram as I stick to my words. In the Assembly elections Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay will be contesting from Bhowanipore constituency," she added.
The BJP had challenged West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to announce that she will contest the state election only from Nandigram if she is confident of her victory.
The BJP national general secretary and Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya in a tweet had also asked Banerjee to announce if she will be fighting only from Nandigram.
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Accepting the challenge, Mamata said, "Khelenge, ladenge, jitenge," (will play, will fight and will win) while sounding confident of a third consecutive term in the state government.
In 2016, the Nandigram seat in East Midnapore district was won by the then TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, who recently switched over to BJP and has publicly vowed to defeat Banerjee by 50,000 votes.
The TMC chief said the party was not able to provide seats to many because they have to bring new candidates forward. Suvendu Adhikari is the current MLA from Nandigram. Adhikari, once a close aide of Banerjee and TMC leader has now switched to BJP in December, last year.
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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 in the state will take place on May 2.
(With inputs from Agencies)
