Trinamool Congress chief head Mamata Banerjee has called a party meeting tomorrow after the Election Commission of India announced the schedule of the Lok Sabha polls.
From discussing the list of candidates to delineating the run-up strategy, the meeting will see the finalisation of all matters pertaining to the preparation for polls in April-May 2019. Whether the list of candidates to be fielded by the Trinamool will be announced on Tuesday itself was however not clear.
Earlier, at a core committee party meeting, the Trinamool leader had indicated that there won’t be too many changes in the list of candidates, and most of the winning candidates from 2014 Lok Sabha elections would be fielded again.
Two candidates from Bishnupur and Bolpur – Saumitra Khan and Anupam Hazra – have been suspended from the party. While Khan has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, Hazra was suspended for anti-party activities. Two new candidates will thus replace them.
Of the eight seats where Trinamool lost last time, there will be new candidates fielded in most of these seats, as per party sources. Mamata Banerjee has already constituted a 12-member team comprised of Subrata Bakshi, Partho Chattopadhyay, Abhishek Bandhopadhyay, Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Moloy Ghatak, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Jyotipriyo Mallick, Shubhendu Adhikari, Subroto Mukhopadhyay, Shashi Panja and Derek O’Brien to finalise the names of the candidates. As per tradition, the final list will however be ratified by Banerjee herself.
The seats of Darjeeling and Asansol lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014 have come to acquire special significance for the Trinamool Congress this time around.
Bhaichung Bhutia and Dola Sen were the two candidates fielded by the Trinamool Congress in 2014 from Darjeeling and Asansol respectively. The seats of Raigunj, Jangipur, Baharampur and Murshidabad, currently held by the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) are also in contention.
Mausam Noor, the Congress parliamentarian from North Malda has already joined the Trinamool and will be the candidate from this seat. The Trinamool leadership is keen to field someone with a similar aura and popularity from the Malda South constituency to contest against the Congress candidate.
As per sources, at least 12-14 fresh new faces will be launched in place of old candidates of the Trinamool Congress.
Legislative assembly members and Rajya Sabha members are expected to make the list. There may even be a few surprises in store including the induction of a celebrity candidate, say sources.
