Kolkata, March 11 -- The Trinamool Congress (TMC) maintained a harmonious blend of experienced leaders and new faces in its list of Lok Sabha candidates prioritising the nominees' winnability, public image and also the performance in case of sitting MPs. By striking a balance between the experienced leaders and fresh faces, the ruling party in Bengal put an end to the debate between the old guard and the new generation. Among the new faces, there are 12 women candidates. Additionally, out of the 26 new candidates, 11 are entirely new to the political arena. As many as 16 candidates have been repeated. Apart from fielding 12 women candidates, the Trinamool Congress also nominated 10 SCs, 3 STs, 2 OBCs candidates. Sons of the soil, Adivasis, Gorkhas, Rajbonshi, Matuas, minority community and women have been given proper representation in the list of candidates announced by Trinamool Congress. The biggest surprise was Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan.
While 16 of 23 sitting MPs were retained, the Trinamool decided not to re-nominate seven incumbents and notably excluded BJP defector Arjun Singh from Barrackpore, who joined the TMC two years ago. Additionally, a Rajya Sabha MP and nine MLAs, including two state ministers Partha Bhowmick and Biplab Mitra, have been thrust into the Lok Sabha battle. A controversy brewed up within the Trinamool Congress if the old guard needed to make way for the younger ones especially after Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee felt the necessity of infusing fresh blood. Abhishek had however clarified later that performance could not be always judged by the age of the candidates.
Trinamool Congress' candidate list included veterans like Sudip Bandopadhyay from Kolkata (North) seat and Prof Saugata Roy from Dumdum. On the other hand, new candidates like Saayoni Ghosh, and Debangshu Bhattacharya have been nominated as candidates. Ghosh will contest from Jadavpur while Bhattacharya who is the in-charge of the TMC's IT cell and party spokesman will contest from Tamluk. The Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had earlier announced that retired Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay would be contesting from the Tamluk seat for BJP. Rachana Banerjee - a popular TV serial and film artist has been nominated from Hooghly and will be pitted against Locket Chatterjee of the BJP. Shatrughan Sinha was retained in the Asansol seat. June Malia - another film star, who was a Trinamool Congress MLA from the Midnapore seat has been elevated to the Lok Sabha seat from the same constituency. Dipak Adhikari (Dev) has been re-nominated. The party has also introduced fresh faces like Gopal Lama, Bapi Haldar. Notably, among the nine MLAs nominated for the polls, BJP defectors Biswajit Das and Mukut Mani Adhikari will contest from Bongaon and Ranaghat, strongholds of the Matua community.
Three-term MPs Sudip Bandopadhyay, Sougata Roy, Satabdi Roy, Kalyan Banerjee, and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar have been re-nominated from their respective seats of North Kolkata, Dum Dum, Birbhum, Serampore and Barasat.
Film star-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who won the Asansol seat in a bypoll on a TMC ticket in 2022, has been re-nominated. Kirti Azad, a former cricketer and party leader, has been nominated from Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency, previously lost to the BJP in 2019.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.