In a major turn out in West Bengal politics,  the Bengali actor Srabanti Chatterjee joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kolkata on Monday ahead of the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.

West Bengal Assembly elections will be held in eight phases starting from March 27 with the final round of voting occurring on April 29. Counting of votes will take place on May 2

The actor joined the party in the presence of West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and party's election in-charge in the state, Kailash Vijayvargiya.

While Mamata Banerjee is seeking her third consecutive term, BJP has set a target of winning 200 seats in the 294-member state Assembly. Congress and the Left have stitched an alliance for the polls and had already finalized the seat-sharing agreement. With the announcement of the election schedule, the Model Code of Conduct has come into force in the state.

On 26 February, the Election Commission of India declared the polling dates for assembly elections in the states of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. The EC announced that while Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will see their polling get over in a day or in one phase, Assam and West Bengal will have three and eight phases of elections, respectively.

CM Yogi to visit Bengal today rally in Muslim dominated area 'Malda'

Red fort violence: Shiromani Akali Dal in support of Deep Sidhu, said 'will give legal support'

AAP honest governance: Miss India Delhi 2019 Mansi Sehgal on joining AAP