Mamata Banerjee, along with her MP nephew Abhishek Banerjee, announced the TMC candidates’ list
Kolkata: West Bengal’s ruling Trinamul Congress on Tuesday announced that the party will contest 291 of the 294 seats in the Assembly polls, leaving three for the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM). TMC supremo and three-time CM Mamata Banerjee will contest from her home turf, Bhowanipore. The BJP is fielding Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari against her.
Mamata Banerjee, along with her MP nephew Abhishek Banerjee, announced the TMC candidates’ list — dropping 74 from the 2021 poll — at her residence in Kalighat before the media and exuded confidence of winning a fourth consecutive term. She declared that her party would bag more than 226 seats in the polls.
Asked about her rival candidate, Mamata Banerjee 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 in Bhowanipore."
The Chief Minister also took potshots at the BJP and Left Front for failing to release their full candidates’ list, like her party, in one go.
Giving out the details of candidates’ selection, Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the TMC national general secretary, said that among the 291 picks, 95 represent the SC/ST communities. “Out of 95 candidates, 78 belong to SC communities, while 17 are STs. There are also 52 women in the list, and 47 candidates are from the minority community,” he said.
The TMC dropped 74 old faces, including many heavyweights like Partha Chatterjee, Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha, who were arrested by the Central agencies in the school jobs scam. Chiranjit and Kanchan Mullick, Swarna Kamal Saha, Tapan Dasgupta, Asit Majumdar and Vivek Gupta are among those who are dropped.
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 in other party roles later.
Basundhara Goswami, daughter of former Left leader and ex-state minister Kshiti Goswami and Sirsanyo Bandopadhyay, son of party MP Kalyan Banerjee, are among the new faces.
"We have an understanding with BGPM in the hills and have left 3 seats—Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong—for their candidates," Ms Banerjee said. The 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 was once a member of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha headed by Bimal Gurung.
