The Trinamul Congress’s list of 42 candidates for the ensuing Lok Sabha election contains a few surprises, some new faces and ensured representation of the old guard while six sitting MPs were dropped. The list of candidates was announced from the podium at the mammoth Janagarjan Sabha gathering at Brigade Parade Ground this afternoon.
The announcement, for all Lok Sabha seats from Bengal, also put paid to any lingering hopes on the part of the Congress for a seat-sharing arrangement in Bengal. Eleven women candidates have been nominated for the Lok Sabha election. They are Mala Roy, Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Shatabdi Roy, Mahua Moitra, Pratima Mondol, Shaoni Ghosh, June Malliah, Mitali Bag, Sujata Khan, Dr Sharmila Sarkar and Rachana Banerjee.
Abhishek Banerjee, party’s national general secretary read out the list at the instruction of party’s chairperson Mamata Banerjee. Six sitting party MPs were not given tickets. They are Mimi Chakraborty ( Jadavpur), Nusrat Jahan (Basirhat), Aparupa Poddar (Arambag), Arjun Singh (Barrackpore) and CM Jatua from Mathurapur and Sunil Mondol from East Burdwan. Actor-turned-politician Shaoni Ghosh, who is the president of the Trinamul Youth Congress will fight from Jadavpur Parliamentary seat.
She replaces another actor Mimi Chakraborty. Actor Rachana Banerjee will make her political debut contesting against sitting BJP MP Locket Chatterjee from Hooghly. The other actors who will be contesting are June Malliah from Midnapore, Satabdi Roy in Birbhum, Dipak Adhikari (Deb) from Ghatal and Bollywood veteran Shatrughan Sinha,who will contest from Asansol. Two popular cricketers, Kriti Azad and Yusuf Pathan, will contest from Burdwan-Durgapur and Behrampur, respectively. Of the old guard who were renewed their tickets, Abhishek Banerjee will contest from Diamond