Ahead of West Bengal Assembly elections, TMC forms 12-member election committee

After the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced dates for Assembly elections in 4 states, West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday, 26th February, formed a 12-member election committee that will look into the selection of candidates and plan a campaign for the upcoming assembly polls. Party's secretary-general Partha Chatterjee after attending core committee meeting said that this panel will be headed by CM and TMC supermo Mamata Banerjee. 

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TMC forms 12-member election committee

Giving out further details of this election committee, Partha Chatterjee informed that senior party leaders, MPs and MLAs including Subrata Bakshi, Abhishek Banerjee, Sudip Banerjee, Derek O Brien, Sougata Roy, Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Aroop Biswas and C M Jatua will also be a part of this panel. 

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According to sources, the TMC leaders had earlier extensively discussed the issues related to the selection of the candidates and planned for the election campaign. A TMC leader said, "Selection of the candidates will be an important thing this time and inputs from election strategist Prashant Kishor and his team I-PAC will play an important role in it." Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said that West Bengal polls will be held in 8 phases, and will begin with polling for 30 seats on March 27. 

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West Bengal polls

Meanwhile, the BJP has claimed it will win 200 seats in the elections, while the TMC, via poll strategist Prashant Kishor, has contended that the saffron party won't cross 99. West Bengal assembly with 294 seats will go to polls in April-May 2021, Trinamool holds 222 seats. BJP has made major inroads in the state in the Lok Sabha elections winning 18 seats and establishing itself as the major opposition force in the state. Mamata Banerjee has announced that she will contest polls from Nandigram, the place that paved way for her rule in the state, and her ex-aide Suvendu Adhikari - who is now in BJP - has vowed to defeat her. 

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