The TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has retained faith in Mr Kalyan Banerjee the present Serampore MP to contest the Lok Sabha seat for the third time. After TMC candidate Dr Ratna Dey Nag lost the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat to BJP candidate Locket Chatterjee in the last election, Rachna Banerjee is the TMC candidate for the seat this time.
While she will be contesting against cinema celebrity Locket Chatterjee, her name, or nickname of Didi no 1, is spoken in every house of Bengal. The setback in industrialisation after the departure of the Tata Nano project from Singur and lack of job opportunities have become a major issue and a matter of resentment and discontentment among the people of Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency against Locket Chatterjee.
Her frequent absences from her constituency has also come up as an another negative issue. The present Arambagh MP Aparupa Poddar have failed to motivate the people of her constituency regarding the development work carried on by the TMC government, and the growing political presence of the BJP in Arambagh is not encouraging for the Trinamul Congress. Mithali Bag is the new TMC candidate for Arambagh Lok Sabha seat. She is already a member of Hooghly Zela Parishad and has good links with the grassroot workers and the ruling party leadership is confident that she will be able to bring in the votes in favour of TMC.