Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today announced the party’s candidate list for all 42 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal.
The biggest surprises were perhaps the Jadavpur and Basirhat Lok Sabha seats, where Bengali film stars Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan have been fielded. Asked what would happen to the Bengali film industry – popularly known as Tollywood – now that its biggest stars were all in the Trinamool Congress, Banerjee said they could well manage both their roles – as politicians and as popular heroines.
This also means Trinamool’s MP from Jadavpur – a prestigious and tough seat – won’t be contested by Prof Sugata Basu this time. Basu, who teaches in Harvard University, has told Mamata Banerjee that he hasn’t been given permission for staying away from teaching for so long.
Another big surprise is Trinamool Congress bigwig Subrata Bakshi who has won from Kolkata South constituency – which has been Mamata Banerjee’s winning constituency for several terms – is not contesting this time. Instead, the Kolkata South constituency candidate will be party veteran Mala Roy, a hardworking and dedicated Mamata Banerjee loyalist.
“This can only happen in the Trinamool Congress,” Banerjee said, adding that Subrata Bakshi had told her he would like to devote his entire time to ensure that the party wins from all 42 seats.
Other Trinamool Congress MPs not contesting this time are Sandhya Roy, Uma Soren and Idris Ali.
Roy, a veteran film actor, has apparently told Banerjee that she would like to do work for the party that did not involve moving around so much. Lok Sabha MP Manas Bhuniya will contest from Midnapore, from where Roy had won last time. This is a well-planned party strategy, say insiders.
As far as Uma Soren, the party’s former Jhargram candidate is concerned, Banerjee is said to have been rather upset with her, though at the press conference she mentioned that Soren herself had told her she wanted to do more party work than contest as a candidate.
The Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat is also a big surprise – it will have former Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Amar Rai as the candidate. Mamata Banerjee said that Rai, who has a Bengali wife, will be the perfect candidate to contest and win the Darjeeling seat, as he is loved as a son of the soil in the hill town.
Moon Moon Sen, who was a candidate from Bankura, will contest this time from Asansol, fighting it out where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP’s) Babul Supriyo had won in 2014. Former Mayor Subrata Mukherjee will contest from Bankura seat. This too, is a major party strategy, sources said.
Rupali Biswas, the widow of Trinamool Congress’ lawmaker Satyajit Biswas who was recently murdered, will be the candidate from Ranaghat constituency.
Other key candidates include Sisir Adhikary, Dibyandu Adhikary, Dinesh Trivedi, Mohua Moitra, Sudip Bandopadhyay, Abhishek Bandopadhyay and so on.
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