New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Patry National General Secretary Arun Singh on Saturday announced the first list of candidates contesting for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.
Singh announced 57 names of candidates for the 2021 Bengal elections and confirmed that Suvendhu Adhikary will be contesting the election from Nandigram against CM Mamata Banerjee.
Former Indian cricketer Ashoke Dinda and ex-IPS officer Bharati Ghosh are among the BJP candidates, party general secretary Arun Singh said at a press conference, adding that it has conceded one seat to ally AJSU.
With this, the party has announced candidates for all but three of the 60 seats which will go to polls in the first two of the eight-phase elections to be held between March 27 and April 29.
"Jungle raaj" prevails in the state, and voters have made up their mind to oust the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and elect the BJP to power, Singh claimed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address a rally in Kolkata's Brigade Parade ground on Sunday, his first after the announcement of the poll dates.
Nandigram, the site of protests against the Left government which had ignited a popular upsurge and catapulted the TMC to power in 2011, is set for one of the keenest electoral battles in the state with Banerjee taking on her former protegee and now BJP leader Adhikari.
Adhikari had won from the seat in 2016 and resigned recently before crossing over to the saffron party.
Banerjee announced her candidature from the seat while leaving her traditional constituency of Bhowanipore in Kolkata.
The Trinamool Congress had on Friday released its list of candidates with Mamata Banerjee announcing that she will contest from Nandigram. The Chief Minister, who has been representing Bhawanipur, had earlier announced that she will contest from Nandigram.
Adhikari, a former minister in the Trinamool Congress government, had joined the BJP in December last year. He had earlier said that BJP will defeat Mamata Banerjee by over 50,000 votes from Nandigram.
(With inputs from Agencies)
