 "TMC chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee during a rally in Kolkata | Photo: PTI")
TMC chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee throughout a rally in Kolkata | Photo: PTI
In the primary signal that the Opposition INDIA bloc had failed to make sure one-on-one contests in opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday introduced its record of 42 candidates for the Lok Sabha (LS) polls in West Bengal, together with two seats that the Congress received in 2019. It additionally declared its intention to contest in Meghalaya, the place the Congress introduced its candidates on Friday, and Assam.
TMC fielded fewer ladies than in 2019, changing its sitting Member of Parliament (MP) and Bengali movie actor Nusrat Jahan from Basirhat, the place Sandeshkhali is located, with former MP Haji Nurul Islam, who represented the seat from 2009 to 14. It dropped seven sitting MPs, together with Jahan, Jadavpur MP and one other Bengali movie star, Mimi Chakraborty, and the father-son duo of Sisir and Dibyendu Adhikari.
Actor Saayoni Ghosh, who has headed the TMC’s youth wing since 2021, will contest the Jadavpur LS seat.
TMC renominated 15 of its sitting MPs. Additionally, the get together has fielded Shatrughan Sinha, who received the Asansol LS by-poll on the TMC ticket. TMC misplaced Asansol in 2019. It has fielded 9 legislators, together with two ministers.
At her get together’s public assembly on Sunday afternoon at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground, TMC Chairperson Mamata Banerjee “saluted” Arun Goel, who stop final week because the nation’s Election Commissioner. She stated Geol resisted the diktats in opposition to Bengal and alleged an try and “rig” the LS polls.
Mamata paraded 42 of her get together’s Bengal candidates, together with cricketer Yusuf Pathan. The get together is fielding him from Baharampur, the seat of Congress’ LS chief, strident Mamata-baiter Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. From Maldaha Dakshin, which Congress’ Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury has represented within the final 4 LS, TMC fielded a comparatively unknown analysis scholar from Oxford, Shahnawaz Ali Raihan.
In 2019, Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury received by a skinny margin of 8,222 votes in opposition to the BJP’s Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury, who was later elected Member of Legislative Assembly from English Bazar, with TMC’s Moazzem Hossain securing a big 27.45 per cent vote share in a three-cornered contest. The BJP has once more fielded Sreerupa from the seat. According to sources, TMC fielding ‘outsiders’ in Baharampur and Maldaha Dakshin may assist the sitting Congress MPs.
TMC fielded former Indian Police Service officer Prasun Banerjee from Maldaha Uttar, a seat that TMC’s Mausam Noor misplaced in 2019 to the BJP’s Khagen Murmu along with her cousin Isha Khan Choudhury at no. 3.
TMC fielded former cricketer Kirti Azad from the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, which the get together misplaced in 2019. Mohua Moitra will contest her sitting Krishnanagar seat, whereas actor and state legislator June Malia will contest from Medinipur, which the TMC misplaced in 2019.
TMC is fielding fewer ladies than 5 years in the past. In the record introduced Sunday, 12, or almost 29 per cent, of its 42 candidates are ladies. In 2019, it dropped its sitting male MPs to discipline as many as 17 ladies, or nearly 41 per cent, with eight of them successful. Of the 9 who had misplaced, the TMC final month despatched Mausam Noor and Mamata Thakur to the Rajya Sabha.
Of the dozen ladies contesting on the TMC ticket is Sujata Mondal Khan from Bishnupur, in opposition to her ex-husband and sitting BJP MP Saumitra Khan.
In 2019, the BJP gave the TMC a scare in West Bengal, successful 18 seats to the TMC’s 22. The BJP secured a big 40.64 per cent vote share, a mere 3 per cent lower than the TMC’s 43.69 per cent. However, it could not repeat its efficiency within the 2021 Assembly polls, with the TMC rising the hole of their respective vote shares to 10 per cent by securing 48.02 per cent in opposition to the BJP’s 37.97 per cent.
The BJP introduced a listing of 20 candidates from Bengal on March 4, with its proposed Asansol candidate, Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh, later expressing his unavailability to contest after outrage over his songs “denigrating Bengali women”.
Mamata stated the TMC will contest a seat in Uttar Pradesh, for which she had spoken with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and in addition in Meghalaya.
The Congress has fielded its sitting Shillong MP Vincent Pala and introduced its candidate from Tura.
In 2019, Congress candidate Mukul Sangma was the runner-up in Tura, dropping to the National People’s Party’s Agatha Sangma. Mukul Sangma joined the TMC in 2021, was the get together’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2023 Meghalaya Assembly polls and addressed Sunday’s rally in Kolkata.
The TMC has framed the forthcoming LS battle as one between bohiragoto zamindar (the feudal lords who’re outsiders), who’re unaware of Bengal’s tradition versus bhoomiputra (sons of the soil), and as Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee put it, a “Modi versus Didi” battle.
In the context of the Sandeshkhali controversy, she flagged the BJP’s failure to guard the dignity of girls in Manipur. She stated her get together would oppose the National Register of Citizens.
First Published: Mar 10 2024 | 11:07 PM IST
