BJP releases names of 3 candidates for Assam & 2 new candidates for Bengal elections

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has on Wednesday afternoon released names of three candidates for Assam Assembly elections and two candidates for West Bengal Assembly elections. In Assam, the Central election committee of the BJP selected Milan Das who will contest Hailakandi, Paramananda Rajbonghsi to contest from Sipajhar and Ramakrishna Ghosh to contest the Assam polls from Hojai.
 
In West Bengal, the saffron party has chosen Hiranmoy Chattopadhyaya who will contest from Kharagpur Sardar, and Supriti Chatterji who will contest the polls from Barjora. Earlier the BJP had released its phase 1 list of 40 candidates each for Assam and West Bengal.

Heated battlegrounds in West Bengal and Assam

The Congress is in grand alliance with seven parties in Assam including the Rashtriya Janata Dal that is the latest entry into the 'Mahajot'. Earlier, RJD Assam president Shonarul Shah Mustafa told PTI "The party has formally joined the opposition grouping and it will contest the Tinsukia constituency which will go to polls during the first phase on March 27."

Meanwhile, Himanta Biswa Sarma will contest from his constituency Jalukbari. The NEDA convenor proved critical in Assam polls of 2016 where is credited with spearheading the BJP's rise to power.

On the other hand, Mukul Roy started his career as a Youth Congress leader, and has this year got a ticket from the BJP in West Bengal. While the Bengal Assembly has 294 MLAs, Roy referring to the polls was quoted by PTI as saying "Is baar 200 par." Meanwhile, the incumbent CM of Bengal Mamata Banerjee earlier on Wednesday filed her nomination in Nandigram where she is facing Suvendu Adhikari who is BJP's candidate for the constituency.
 
Adhikari, who used to be a Trinamool leader, took a jibe at Banerjee as he remarked "She is an outsider in Nandigram and she doesn't even cast her vote here. I have been with the people of this place for several years unlike Banerjee, who comes here only during polls," he added.