BJP declares name of Kashipur candidate

Kolkata: The BJP on Monday announced that Kamalakanta Hansda will be its candidate for Kashipur seat in Purulia district where election will be held in the first phase of West Bengal Assembly poll on March 27.

The party had on Saturday released its first list of 57 candidates for the first two phases of West Bengal assembly polls, but did not name candidates for three of the 60 seats including Kashipur.

On Monday the party announced as its candidate for Kashipur seat an influential tribal leader taking the number of seats for which candidates have been announced to 58.

The candidate list gave



special emphasis on new faces and politically crucial backward communities as most of the seats that will go to poll on that day are either reserved seats or have high density of SC and ST population.

A total 60 seats will go to poll in the first two of phases of the poll. The opposition BJP had bagged eight of the nine seats in the tribal Jangalmahal area in the 2019 parliamentary polls.

Election in Bengal, which is poised to be a stiff contest between the TMC and the BJP, will be held in eight phases beginning with polling for 30 seats on March 27. Votes will be counted on May 2.