Kolkata, March 17 – The Trinamool Congress announced 291 candidates for the two-phase April elections to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday, effectively dropping almost all the leaders who had been under scrutiny by central agencies in various corruption cases. Nearly a fifth of the nominees are women.
There are a total of 52 women candidates, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, representing approximately 18% of the total candidates. The Chief Minister is contesting from Bhabanipur in South Kolkata, where the BJP candidate, Suvendu Adhikari, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, is also contesting. Adhikari, who defeated Banerjee in Nandigram in the 2021 polls, is also contesting from that constituency.
In Nandigram, the Trinamool has fielded Pabitra Kar, a former local BJP leader and close confidant of Adhikari, who joined the party just a couple of hours before Chief Minister Banerjee released the party's list of candidates.
The Trinamool has denied renomination to all sitting MLAs and former ministers, except one, who had spent a significant period in jail after being arrested by central investigating agencies in various corruption cases, including the school-job case and the PDS distribution case.
Partha Chatterjee, the former Secretary General and Education Minister, who was jailed for approximately three years in connection with the school-job case, has been denied renomination from his traditional Behala (Paschim) constituency in South 24 Parganas district.
Manik Bhattacharya from Palashipara in Nadia district and Jiban Krishna Saha from Barwan in Murshidabad district have also been dropped.
The only exception is Jyotipriya Mallick, the former Food & Supplies Minister, who had spent a significant period in jail after being arrested in connection with the multi-crore PDS distribution case. He has been renominated from his old constituency of Habra in the North 24 Parganas district.
Most of the other sitting ministers have been renominated from their respective constituencies. There have been no new faces from the film or glamour world on the candidate list, and it appears that efforts were made to create a balanced list of "old guard" and "new faces".
Three assembly constituencies in the North Bengal hills – Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Kurseong – have been allocated to the Trinamool's political ally in the hills, the Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), founded by Anit Thapa, who is also the Chief Executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA).
"This time, our candidates will win from at least 226 Assembly constituencies. After the elections, this kind of BJP will have no presence in West Bengal," Banerjee said after releasing the list.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, the Trinamool won 215 seats, while the BJP secured 77 seats. The CPI-M-led Left Front, the Congress, and the All India Secular Front (AISF) had a seat-sharing arrangement in 2021. While the AISF managed to win one seat, both the Left Front and the Congress failed to win any seats.