BJP to finalise candidate list for 1st phase of Assam and WB Assembly elections today

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has begun the process to finalise its candidate lists for poll-bound states and likely to declare it by end of this week. The party will hold its first Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting on Thursday evening at the party headquarters here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, other Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, Thawar Chand Gehlot, and other members of this committee will be present at the meeting. The CEC meeting will commence at 6.00 pm.

Importantly, the leadership will lock the names for the first phase of both Assam and West Bengal Assembly. Senior BJP leaders from West Bengal Mukul Roy, Kailash Vijayvarghiya and the state president Dilip Ghosh will also be present at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the BJP central leadership held two consecutive core committee meetings to discuss the probable candidate lists for both the states on Tuesday and Wednesday. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and other BJP leaders of the state met party chief Jagat Prakash Nadda in the national Capital on Tuesday.

While the saffron brigade is putting its all possible effort and strength to touch the Bengal ground, in Assam, experts feel that there is a sheer chance of regaining the throne for the second time for BJP.

In 126 Assembly seats in Assam, elections will be held in three phases, starting on March 27 (47 seats), then on April 1 (39 seats) and lastly on April 6 (40 seats). Whereas, West Bengal will go for a month-long election with eight phases - March 27, April 1, April 6, April 8, April 17, April 22, April 26 and April 29.