TMC Names 291 Faces, Offers Gorkha Party 3 Seats For Wb Polls; Didi Contests At Bhowanipore Against Suvendu

TMC supremo and three-time chief minister Mamata Banerjee will contest at her home turf, Bhowanipore, against leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari from BJP, making it the hottest contest of the polls.

Ms Banerjee, along with her MP nephew Abhishek Banerjee, announced the TMC candidates’ list at her residence in Kalighat before the media. Exuding confidence in getting a fourth consecutive term, Ms Banerjee declared that her party would bag more than 226 seats this time.

Asked about her rival candidate, she however sounded irritated but said, “I have faith in people because I stay with them 365 days, discharging my responsibilities. Our party will win with a big margin at Bhowanipore which leads all other seats that we contest at.

We have an understanding with BGPM in the hills and left 3 seats: Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong for their candidates.”

BGPM, which has become prominent in the hills after its success in the last Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and Darjeeling Municipality polls, is led by GTA chief Anit Thapa who once was in the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha headed by Bimal Gurung.

The CM also took potshots at the BJP and Left Front for failing to release their full candidates’ list like her party at one go. On the candidates’ selection pattern, Mr Banerjee informed that among the 291 names, 95 represent the SC/ST communities much above the ceiling of reservation at 84. “Out of 95, 78 belong to SC while 17 are from ST.

There are also 52 women faces and 47 from the minorities,” he said. Elaborating the age-wise ticket distribution, the TMC national general secretary added, “There are four candidates below 31 years accounting 1%, 38 in 31-40 years forming 13%, 88 in 41-50 years covering 31%, 89 in 51-60 years consisting 32%, 47 in 61-70 years comprising 16%, 23 in 71-80 years making 8% and two in 81-90 years leading to 1% of the list.”

TMC however dropped 74 old faces including many heavyweights. They include party veteran Partha Chatterjee, Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha, who were arrested by central agencies in the school jobs scam.

Among others were two Bengali actors Chiranjit and Kanchan Mullick, Swarna Kamal Saha, Tapan Dasgupta, Asit Majumdar and Vivek Gupta. Even former Kolkata Mayor and the TMC chief’s ex-cabinet colleague, Sovan Chatterjee, who made a comeback to the TMC-fold and got a post in the urban development department a few months ago, did not get a ticket. Referring to the bunch of exclusions, Ms Banerjee pointed out that they may be accommodated to other party roles later.

The new faces include Basundhara Goswami, daughter of former Left leader and ex-state minister Kshiti Goswami, Sirsanyo Bandopadhyay, son of party MP Kalyan Banerjee, Debangshu Bhattacharya, Trinankur Bhattacharya, two journalists: Kunal Ghosh and Devadeep Purohit, two former sportspersons, Bidesh Bose and Swapna Burman. Interestingly, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee has also been fielded at Uluberia Purba constituency in Howrah. The three seats that TMC offered to BGPM is led by Gorkha Territorial Administration chief Anit Thapa.

BGPM, which has become prominent in the hills after its success in the last Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and Darjeeling Municipality polls, is led by GTA chief Anit Thapa who once was in the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha headed by Bimal Gurung.