Bengal polls 2016: TMC to announce list of candidates today

Kolkata, March 4: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee will on Friday announce the name of the candidates her party is fielding in the upcoming Assembly elections.

The Election Commission will also announce the schedules of polling in five states during the day. Banerjee is expected to make her announcement soon after that.

Why is Mamata in a hurry?

The urgency shown by the state's ruling party is not without reason. The TMC faces a possible joint opposition from the Left and the Congress, who have planned to make an electoral tie-up for this election.

The TMC is perhaps a bit apprehensive about the coming together of the two Opposition parties although the alliance hasn't been formalised yet. The TMC had asked the EC to hold the elections early this year, so that it would reduce the Opposition's time in organising its campaign.

And now, with the EC set to announce the election dates, the TMC leadership will spare no time to announce its own candidates for the elections so that the Opposition's response time gets reduced and it becomes that more difficult for them to smoothly arrive at consensus candidates.

Oneindia News