Mamata Banerjee’s TMC Announces 42 Candidates For West Bengal
Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) announced its candidates for all the West Bengal constituencies closing the door for Congress to have an alliance in the state. The announcement was made by Ms Banerjee in a mammoth rally organised in Kolkata ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The list features Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, expelled MP Mahua Moitra, former cricketer Kirti Azad, actors Shatrughan Sinha, Dev, Shatabdi Roy among others.
One of the surprises in the list is the name of former Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan. Pathan, who was a player of IPL side Kolkata Knight Riders once, has been fielded from Berhampore, from where Congress’ senior leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is winning the Lok Sabha elections from 1999.
Right after the announcement, Congress hit back at the ‘unilateral’ move by TMC.
“The Indian National Congress has always maintained that it wants a respectable seat-sharing formula with the TMC in West Bengal. It means mutual negotiations, give and take, some compromise. We have always said that our doors are open for negotiations and seat-sharing talks but there should be no unilateral announcement of the seats, we should do it collectively together as we have done in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, UP, and so on…,” Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh told news agency ANI.
The Indian National Congress has repeatedly declared its desire to have a respectable seat-sharing agreement with the TMC in West Bengal. The Indian National Congress has always maintained that such an agreement has to be finalised through negotiations and not by unilateral…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) March 10, 2024
”The TMC has announced (the candidates), I don”t know what pressure was there on the TMC but as far as we are concerned we want to strengthen the INDIA alliance in West Bengal…So let”s see what happens,” he added.
TMC’s full list for West Bengal
1 Cooch Behar (SC) – Jagadish C Basuniya
2 Alipurduar (ST) – Prakash Chik Baraik
3 Jalpaiguri (SC)- Nirmal Ch Roy
4 Darjeeling – Gopal Lama
5 Raiganj – Krishna Kalyani
6 Balurghat – Biplab Mitra
7 Malda Uttar – Prasun Banerjee
8 Malda Dakshin – Shahnawaz Ali Raihan
9 Jangipur – Khalilur Rahman
10 Berhampore – Yusuf Pathan
11 Murshidabad – Abu Taher Khan
12 Krishnanagar – Mahua Moitra
13 Ranaghat (SC)- Mukut Mani Adhikari
14 Bongaon – Biswajit Das
15 Barrackpore – Partha Bhowmick
16 Dum Dum – Prof Saugata Roy
17 Barasat – Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar
19 Joynagar (SC) – Pratima Mondal
20 Mathurapur (SC) – Bapi Halder
21 Diamond Harbour – Abhishek Banerjee
22 Jadavpur – Saayoni Ghosh
23 Kolkata Dakshin – Mala Roy
24 Kolkata Uttar – Sudip Bandhopadhyay
25 Howrah – Prasun Banerjee
26 Uluberia – Sajda Ahmed
27 Serampore – Kalyan Banerjee
28 Hooghly – Rachana Banerjee
29 Arambagh (SC) – Mitali Bag
30 Tamluk – Debangshu Bhattacharya
31 Kanthi – Uttam Barik
32 Ghatal – Deepak Adhikari (Dev)
33 Jhargram (ST) – Kalipada Soren
34 Medinipur – June Malia
35 Purulia – Shantiram Mahato
36 Bankura – Arup Chakrabarty
37 Bishnupur (SC)- Sujata Mondal
38 Bardhaman Purba (SC) – Dr Sharmila Sarkar
39 Bardhaman Durgapur – Kirti Azad
40 Asansol – Shatrughan Sinha
41 Bolpur (SC) – Asit Kumar Mal
42 Birbhum – Satabdi Roy
