The Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has discussed the candidates for two phases of the Assembly elections for West Bengal and Assam. The party is likely to announce the list of candidates for both states soon.
Top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, BJP chief JP Nadda and other members of the party held a meeting with leaders of Assam and West Bengal on Thursday, here at the party headquarters.
BJP and its two alliance partners have sealed the seat-sharing deal for 126-members Assam Assembly. According to sources, BJP will contest on 92 seats, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) will fight on 26 seats and United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) will field its candidates on 8 seats.
In the meeting held yesterday, the candidates for 84 seats were discussed and finalised, sources said adding that the candidate list is likely to be announced soon after a problem with the alliance partners is sorted out.
In yesterday's meeting, CEC also discussed the candidate list for the first two phases of seats in West Bengal were discussed and finalised.
Sources said that the crucial constituency Nandigram from where Suvendu Adhikari is the current MLA was also discussed. Adhikari, once a close aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader switched to BJP in December, last year.
BJP state leaders want Adhikari to fight against Banerjee from the Nandigram seat. A few days back, Adhikari himself announced that he wants to contest against Banerjee.
The West Bengal Chief Ministere had on January 18 announced that she would contest from Nandigram as well as Bhowpur seats.
In case, Adhikari does not contest the polls from the Nandigram seat against the TMC chief, then a minister from the Central government is likely to be fielded against Banerjee but the discussion is yet to be finalised, sources said.
After further discussions and issues are resolved, BJP will announce its list of candidates most likely today or tomorrow, sources added.
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.
Assam Assembly elections will be held in three phases beginning from March 27 with the final round of voting taking place on April 6.
The counting of votes in both states will take place on May 2.
( With inputs from ANI )
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