Education minister Partha Chatterjee's constituency, Behala, is likely to get two more undergraduate colleges before the Assembly elections.

The state government is likely to make an announcement in the next few days, an education department official said. The colleges will be run by the state and affiliated to Calcutta University, he said.

If the plans materialise, the number of state-run and state-aided colleges to be set up during the Trinamul regime will go up to 33 - one more than what chief minister Mamata Banerjee had promised after coming to power in 2011.

Thirty-one colleges, including two state-aided engineering colleges, have already been set up.

The official said one of the colleges would come up in Sarsuna and the other near Parnasree. One will offer general degree courses in science, arts and commerce while the other will offer BEd courses.

The higher education department has identified plots owned by the refugee rehabilitation department (Parnasree) and the health department (Sarsuna) to set up the institutions.

A preliminary inspection of the two plots has been done, a government source said.

He claimed that the chief minister had given her approval to set up the colleges in Chatterjee's constituency.

But the government can make an announcement only after the health and the refugee rehabilitation departments hand over the plots to the higher education department, the source said.

The government recently set up a general degree college in Ekbalpore, which was supposed to be the last new college before the Assembly elections.

A proposal to set up two colleges in Behala was mooted at a meeting of Trinamul leaders about a month ago, the source said. The government wants the new colleges to function from the 2017-18 academic session, he said.

The finance department has given a preliminary clearance so that construction can begin immediately after the plots are transferred to the higher education department, the source said.

He said the government wanted to make the official announcement about the colleges before the model code of conduct would come into effect.

Behala has five general degree state-aided colleges, but there's a huge demand for seats, a higher education department official said. "The proposed colleges would provide some relief to students of the area," he said.