West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh on Wednesday filed their nomination papers for their respective Lok Sabha seats of Baharampur and Bardhaman-Durgapur.
Mr Ghosh, a former BJP state president, was shifted from Medinipur Lok Sabha seat, of which he was the sitting MP, to Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.
Sitting BJP MP SS Ahluwalia of Bardhaman-Durgapur was moved to the adjacent Asansol Lok Sabha seat, where he is pitted against TMC heavyweight Shatrughan Sinha.
"This is a new challenge for me and I am confident of winning this seat," Mr Ghosh said. He is pitted against cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad of the TMC.
Mr Ghosh led a colourful procession comprising supporters and party activists and was seen greeting people with folded hands as he went to file his nomination papers.
The Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, which was formed in 2009 after delimitation, has been consistently avoiding re-electing the same political force.
On the other hand, Mr Chowdhury, who is also the leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, exuded confidence of a sixth straight term from Baharampur seat, as he greeted people while going to file his nomination papers.
"People of the constituency are with me. They know I have been with them through thick and thin," he said.
Mr Chowdhury is the Left-Congress candidate in the seat in Murshidabad district.
He was joined by CPI (M) leader Minakshi Mukhopadhyay while marching towards the district magistrate's office to file his nomination papers.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has sprung a surprise by fielding former cricketer Yusuf Pathan in the seat.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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