TMC Announces List Of 42 Candidates For Lok Sabha Polls, Fields 26 New Faces During Mega Rally – News18

Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced its list of 42 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In a surprise move, the party fielded former cricketer Yusuf Pathan from Berhampore and brought in 26 new faces to contest in the polls. 

TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee made the announcement at the ‘Jana Garjan Sabha’ rally at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground. This was the first time that the party announced a candidates list from a public meeting in one go. 

TMC MP Mahua Moitra will contest the polls from the Krishnanagar constituency, while Partha Bhowmick has been fielded from Barrackpore. 

Notably, the Mamata Banerjee-led party has made a strong move by fielding Yusuf Pathan against Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. 

Though earlier, Congress was hopeful of reaching a seat-sharing agreement with the TMC in Bengal, it has now been made clear that the later would go solo in the polls. Soon after the list’s release, the grand old party’s spokesperson Jairam Ramesh took to X and said, “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 announcements. The Indian National Congress has always wanted the INDIA group to fight the BJP together,” Ramesh added.

Earlier, addressing the mega rally Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saluted Arun Goel for resigning as Election Commissioner and for not ‘submitting to pressure from Delhi’. She also slammed the Centre for Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and said, “It is not CAA, it is BAA, they will send you to Bangladesh. We will not allow NRC.”

TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party and labelled its leaders as “outsiders and anti-Bengal”. Launching a scathing attack at the Centre, Mamata’s nephew said that “Modi ki guarantee has zero warranty”, while the TMC and its supremo always keep the promises made to the public. 

He slammed the BJP and its leaders for withholding funds which are due to be given to the state of Bengal.

The announcement comes amid the political unrest in the state over the Sandeshkhali incident and the probe against suspended TMC leader Sheikh Shajahan. 

The meeting at the historic parade is a marker of the starting of TMC’s official campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. Led by CM Mamata Banerjee and TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, around 600 party leaders were present at the dias.

While it received heavy flak over Sandheskhali controversy, the TMC is looking to armour itself with the unpaid MGNREGA wages against the BJP-led Centre. 

The Mamata Banerjee-led party has also formed a media war room ahead of the general elections with 40 speakers for quick rebuttals and media soundbites on various issues daily.