India / 200% confident about winning in Nandigram: BJP's Suvendu Adhikari

Kolkata: Hours after the BJP fielded Suvendu Adhikari from his home turf of Nandigram against his rival Mamata Banerjee, the BJP leader said he will defeat the West Bengal Chief Minister by over 50,000 votes.

Speaking to India Today TV, Suvendu Adhikari said that he is 200 per cent confident of winning Nandigram against his rival Mamata Banerjee.

Responding to the BJP’s decision to field him from Nandigram, Suvendu Adhikari said that the competition is not only from Nandigram but is against corruption and other issues in the state. He also added that there is a strong anti-incumbency wave in West Bengal.

“The West Bengal government has failed in every side. No industry. No developmental work. People need change. West Bengal also wants change. Nandigram also wants change,” Suvendu Adhikari told India Today TV.

Earlier in the day, the BJP released its first list of 57 candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls and fielded Suvendu from his home turf of Nandigram.

According to the list, former Indian cricketer Ashoke Dinda and ex-IPS officer Bharati Ghosh are among the BJP candidates.

With this the party has announced candidates for all but three of the 60 seats which will go to polls in the first two of the eight-phase elections to be held between March 27 and April 29.

Nandigram, the site of protests against the Left government which had ignited a popular upsurge and catapulted the TMC to power in 2011, is set for one of the keenest electoral battles in the state with Banerjee taking on her former protegee and now BJP leader Adhikari.

Adhikari had won from the seat in 2016 and resigned recently before crossing over to the saffron party. Banerjee announced her candidature from the seat while leaving her traditional constituency of Bhowanipore in Kolkata.