PM Modi chairs CEC on West Bengal, Assam candidates

On the speculation that former TMC strongman Suvendu Adhikari could be the party’s face against Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram, Ghosh said the announcement will be made by the party soon.

Signalling the beginning of the poll process, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) central election committee (CEC) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on Thursday to discuss the first list of candidates for West Bengal and Assam.

While West Bengal will go to polls in an eight phases election beginning March 27, in Assam the election is spread over three phases.

While West Bengal will go to polls in an eight phases election beginning March 27, in Assam the election is spread over three phases. The CEC is expected to meet next week to discuss the candidates for Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry that will go to polls on April 6 said a functionary aware of the details.

Thursday’s meeting which began late in evening was attended by party chief JP Nadda, home minister Amit Shah, defence minister, Rajnath Singh, general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh and senior functionaries from the two-poll bound states.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and state chief Ranjeet Kumar Dass among others were present for the meeting to decide the candidates from the state while the state unit chief of West Bengal Dilip Ghosh, Kailash Vijaywargiya, Lok Sabha MP Locket Chatterjee attended the meeting as well.

On the speculation that former TMC strongman Suvendu Adhikari could be the party’s face against Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram, Ghosh said the announcement will be made by the party soon.

As per a person aware of the details, union minister Babul Supriyo told the CEC that he is willing to contest against the West Bengal chief minister if she contests from Bhawanipur.