Yusuf Pathan begins a new innings

Announcement of candidates

The Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee, announced its candidates for each of West Bengal’s 42 seats on Sunday. Several well-known figures are on the TMC list. Yusuf Pathan, a former cricket player, is running from Bahrampore, a seat that has been held by Congressman Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury since 1999. Mahua Moitra, the TMC MP who was expelled, will run for the Lok Sabha again, this time from the Krishnanagar seat.

The India Alliance faced a major setback

A significant setback for the India alliance has been the TMC’s declaration of candidates for each of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee had already announced that she would be going it alone in West Bengal, but Congress sources have indicated that negotiations are still ongoing. “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 finalized through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements. The Indian National Congress has always wanted the INDIA group to fight the BJP together,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.

Other notable names in the list

The nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, is prepared to run for re-election in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from his Diamond Harbour constituency. Gopal Lama from Darjeeling, Nirmal Chandra Roy from Jalpaiguri, Pratima Mondal from Joynagar, Bapi Haldar from Mathurapur, and other candidates are also on the list.

Actor Sayoni Ghosh will run from Jadavpur

Following the announcement of Mimi Chankraborty’s retirement from politics, the TMC has chosen to field actor Sayoni Ghosh in the West Bengal seat of Jadavpur. Notably, in the midst of a dispute in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali district, the party replaced prominent leader Haji Nurul Islam with Basirhat MP Nusrat Jahan. Following accusations of land grabs and sexual assault of women by Sandeshkhali residents against TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh, the party suffered a fierce backlash. Shajahan Sheikh is presently being held by the CBI, and many cases against the leader are being investigated by federal agencies.

By Kevin Varchand