Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut on January 17 announced that the party will contest the upcoming West Bengal Assembly Elections. The state elections are going to be held in the state of West Bengal in April-May this year, in which Shiv Sena party will also field its candidates. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut has announced this on social media.
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"So, here is the much-awaited update. After discussions with Party Chief Shri Uddhav Thackeray, Shivsena has decided to contest the West Bengal Assembly Elections. We are reaching Kolkata soon," Mr Raut, Shiv Sena's top spokesperson tweeted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">So, here is the much awaited update. <br><br>After discussions with Party Chief Shri Uddhav Thackeray, Shivsena has decided to contest the West Bengal Assembly Elections. <br><br>We are reaching Kolkata soon...!!<br><br>Jai Hind, জয় বাংলা !</p>— Sanjay Raut (@rautsanjay61) <a >January 17, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Shiv Sena's entry into the West Bengal assembly elections this year was being speculated as the party had given such hints after contesting the Bihar Assembly elections in 2020.
In West Bengal, Shiv Sena is not going to contest assembly elections for the first time. Earlier, in 2019, Shiv Sena had fielded its candidates for the 2019 General Elections, as well as the party had also contested the Bengal Assembly elections in 2016.
In the 2019 general elections, Shiv Sena fielded its candidates on 15 seats. It included seats like Tamluk, Contai, Midnapore, North Kolkata, Purulia, Barakpore, Bankura, Barasat, Bishnupur, North Malda, Jadhavpur. Apart from this, in 2016, Shiv Sena had fielded its candidates for 18 seats.