the stage is set for highpitched electoral battles in the states of west bengal tamil nadu assam kerala and the union territory of puducherry as the political parties gear up for the poll challenge we bring you all the action from the ground heres a look at all the news views and updates from the battleground states todaywest bengalmamata releases tmc list for 291 assembly seats to contest from nandigramwest bengal chief minister mamata banerjee has confirmed her candidature from nandigram seat as she released the list of trinamool congress candidates for the upcoming assembly polls for 291 seatsthree candidates of the bimal gurung faction of gorkha janmukti morcha gjm an ally of the tmc will be contesting from the remaining three seats in darjeelingi will contest from nandigram as i stick to my words from bhowanipore constituency sobhandeb chattopadhyay will be contesting in the upcoming assembly elections banerjee said while releasing tmc candidate list for the state pollsleft frontcongressisf alliance announces seats to be contested in first two phasesthe left front will contest in the largest number of 40 seats in the first two phases followed by congress which will fight in 12 seats and isf in fiveit is yet to be decided which party will contest from egra nandigram and pingla seats but will be finalised amicably soon left front chairman biman bose saidtamil naduaiadmk releases list of nominees for tn assembly pollsthe ruling aiadmk on friday released its first list of six candidates for the april 6 assembly elections in tamil nadu ahead of archrival dmk and pending conclusion of seatsharing with allies including the bjpthe partys star candidates chief minister k palaniswami and deputy chief minister o panneerselvam will contest from their respective home constituencies of edappadi in salem and bodinayakanur in theni districts respectivelythe aiadmk allotted 23 seats to ally pmk days ago before dmk finalised seatsharing with indian union muslim league manithaneya makkal katchi and viduthalai chiruthaigal katchithe ruling party however is yet to conclude the seatsharing exercise with bjp and others the iuml and mmk were allotted three and two seats respectively by the dmk and it gave six segments to the vckwill fight for respectable number of seats from dmk congressthe congress has struck a defiant note after seat sharing talks with ally dmk for the april 6 assembly polls apparently did not go well and has said it will fight for a respectable number to keep the morale of party workers highsenior congress leader m veerappa moily who had earlier stated that there was no stalemate in the talks and that differences would be sorted out said his party was taking a firm stand on the matterthe dmk he said was sure to realise this as there was a need for consolidation of secular forces in tamil naduassambjp announces 70 candidates for assam pollsthe bjp has released its first list of 70 candidates for the assam assembly polls and announced that allies asom gana parishad and united peoples party liberal will