‘Easiest’ polls for TMC!

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday termed the coming high-stakes assembly elections in the state as the "easiest" election her party has ever faced and announced she would contest from Nandigram constituency. 

Trinamool Congress was thus off the block first by announcing the entire list of 291 candidates in one go ahead of political rivals Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress-Left alliance.

The elections in West Bengal would be held in eight phases over 33 days beginning on March 27. The results will be out on May 2.

Mamata, who is the chief minister for a decade since toppling the 34-year-old Left rule in Bengal, told a media conference in Kolkata that she would not contest this time from Bhowanipore constituency in south Kolkata, from where she was elected five years back.

Nandigram is the bastion of Suvendu Adhikari, one of the top Trinamool Congress leaders who quit the ruling party and joined BJP ahead of the election.

Mamata said her party would contest 291 out of West Bengal's total of 294 assembly seats. Three hill constituencies of Darjeeling, Kurswon and Kalimpong have been left for "friendly parties".

Trinamool Congress has fielded 50 women, 42 Muslim candidates, 79 Scheduled Caste candidates and 17 Scheduled Tribe candidates in the election.

Announcing that no candidate above the age of 80 would contest from Trinamool Congress, Mamata said 23-24 existing Trinamool Congress legislators have been dropped due to age and other reasons.

Announcing the list of candidates, Mamata said "this time we have stressed on more youths and women candidates."

Women constitute 49 per cent of West Bengal's electorate.

Exuding confidence of returning to power for the third consecutive time, Mamata termed it as the "easiest" election her party has ever faced.

Mamata dared Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to deploy as much federal force as it wants and said Trinamnool Congress would still emerge victorious.

BJP Picks Names For Assam polls

Meanwhile, the BJP yesterday released a list of 70 candidates for two phases of the three-phase Assam election.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will contest the assembly election from Majauli seat, while Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, widely known as a key BJP strategist for the north-east, will contest from Jalukbari, a seat that he currently holds.

Of the 126 seats in Assam's legislative assembly, 47 will go to the polls on March 27 in the first phase, voting on 39 will be held on April 1 in the second phase and 40 seats will go to the polls in the third and final phase on April 6.