KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday confirmed her candidature from the Nandigram seat as she released the list of Trinamool Congress candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls.
The incumbent TMC has announced a list of 291 candidates for the 294 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and left three seats for its ally, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). “We are the first political party to announce the candidate list… On three seats of north Bengal, we are not putting up our candidates. In the three seats—Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong—GJM will contest the elections and whoever wins will support us,” she informed.
Affirming her candidature, Banerjee said, “I will contest from Nandigram as I stick to my words.” In January this year, Banerjee had announced that she would contest elections from the Nandigram seat in Purba Medinipur district.
She will vacate her traditional Bhowanipore seat in Kolkata, where she has been the sitting MLA since 2011. “From Bhowanipore constituency, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay will be contesting in the upcoming Assembly elections,” Banerjee said while releasing the TMC candidate list.
Her move to Nandigram is being seen as a challenge to her protégé-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari, who crossed over to the BJP in December.
When asked about Adhikari probably being pitted against her in the constituency, she declined to comment on it.
Banerjee and Adhikari were prominent figures during the anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram in 2007 that ultimately catapulted the firebrand Trinamool Congress supremo to power in West Bengal in 2011, ending the 34-year-old rule of the Left Front.
Though Suvendu Adhikari has time and again expressed his desire to take on his former boss directly in Nandigram, the saffron party leadership is yet to take a decision on it.
“On 9 March, we will release our manifesto. On 10 March, I will file my nomination for the Nandigram seat,” Banerjee told reporters.
Listing out names of candidates, Banerjee further said, “This time we have stressed on more youths and women candidates. Around 23-24 sitting MLAS have been dropped and there are names of about 50 women, 42 Muslims, 79 SC and 17 ST candidates on the list,” she said.
Big names like the West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, Land Minister Abdul Rajjak Molla. Agriculture Minister Purnendu Basu and veteran legislator Jatu Lahiri have been dropped, owing to their age and the threat of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
:After we come to power, we will create Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council) to accomodate senior and experienced leaders. We could not accommodate everybody, especially those above the age of 80 years,” she said.
Mitra, who belonged to the Khardaha constituency in North 24 Parganas, has been replaced by Kajal Sinha, while Rajjak Molla has been replaced by Mohammad Rezaul Karim in Bhangar constituency of South 24 Parganas. Basu has been replaced by Aditi Munshi in the Rajarhat Gopalpur constituency in North 24 Parganas. Mitra has said he will make a comeback in future polls, adding that he could not afford to take a risk during the pandemic.
Among other candidates, TMC leader Madan Mitra will contest from Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas and state Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim will contest from Kolkata Port.
Furthermore, actress Sayantika Banerjee will contest from Bankura, actor Chiranjeet Chakrabarti will contest from Barasat, cricketer Manoj Tiwary will contest from Shibpur and former Congress leader and Jadavpur University professor Om Prakash Mishra will contest from Siliguri.
Exuding confidence in returning to power for the third consecutive term, Banerjee termed it the “easiest” election the TMC has ever faced. “This would be a smiley election for us. We would win it,” she said when asked whether this will be the toughest election the party has fought since its inception in 1998.
Banerjee also challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to deploy as much central force as they want, saying that the TMC will still emerge victorious.
The BJP had won 18 Lok Sabha seats in the last Parliamentary poll out of the total 42 constituencies in Bengal, only four less than TMC’s tally of 22.
She also thanked Hemant Soren of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Sharad Pawar of NCP for extending their support to TMC. Though electorally not much relevant in Bengal, the prominent opposition parties RJD, SP, Shiv Sena, JMM and NCP of Sharad Pawar have prefered the TMC to Congress-Left parties and announced their support to Banerjee in the battle royale for Bengal.
Banerjee released her party candidate list from the lucky room in her Kalighat residence from where she had done the same before the 2011 and 2016 Assembly elections.
Banerjee also sought the blessings of the people of the state and urged them to have faith in her. “I seek the blessings of people. I appeal to maa, maati, manush for your faith. Have faith in me, will protect the state and take it to new heights,” she said, turning to the slogan that first brought her to power in 2011.
The West Bengal Assembly elections will be held in eight phases starting from 27 March with the final round of voting on 29 April. The counting of votes in the state will take place on 2 May.