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Mamata's candidate list for Lok Sabha polls is a fusion of glamour, youth and experience

Mamata's candidate list for Lok Sabha polls is a fusion of glamour, youth and experience

Souvik Ghosh/IBNS | @indiablooms | 12 Mar 2019, 04:10 pm

Kolkata, Mar 12 (IBNS): On a day her former MP Anupam Hazra joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee  came out with a candidate list featuring old horses, youth along and a dash of contemporary Tollywood glamour for the 2019 General Elections.

Taking everyone to surprise, Banerjee announced the names of Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan- two of the leading contemporary Bengali film actresses- to represent her party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Chakraborty, whose film posters can be seen all over the streets now, will make her political debut from Jadavpur constituency, which had earned Banerjee the title of "giant-killer" after defeating Left strongman late Somnath Chatterjee way back in 1984.

Presently the Jadavpur seat is held by TMC's Professor Sugata Bose. "Sugata Bose didn't get permission from Havard University (where he works) to contest the election," Banerjee told media.

Jahan, who was seen in a number of TMC's rallies in last few years, will contest the electoral battle from Muslim-dominated Basirhat constituency.

Not just the two actress, but Moon Moon Sen, actress and daughter of legendary  Suchitra Sen, will seek a second term by fighting the polls but from a different constituency in 2019.

Sen, a sitting MP from Bankura, will now contest election from Asansol constituency, which is presently held by BJP leader and Union Minister Babul Supriyo, who reacted by tweeting, "Mamtaji always presents me with SEN-sational opponents in Asansol Elections... Dola SEN in 2014 and Moonmoon SEN in 2019 !"

Now only the time will tell whether Sen would be able to create a similar magic as in 2014 when she defeated nine-time CPI-M MP Basudeb Acharia.

Needless to mention, TMC's biggest surprise candidate in 2014 was Tollywood superstar Dev (Deepak Adhikari), who will once again contest from Ghatal constituency in the coming elections.

While Sandhya Roy opted out of the political contest, actress Satabdi Roy will seek a second term from Birbhum.

Banerjee relies on old guards too:

In a candidate list, which saw several sitting MPs like heavyweight TMC leader Subrata Bakshi go missing, Banerjee named some of her trusted old guards for the parliamentarian elections.

While sitting MP from Kolkata Dakshin, Bakshi, opted out of the Lok Sabha elections, state minister, former Mayor and veteran politician Subrata Mukherjee will fight the parliamentary polls for the first time in his life.

"You will be happy to know that Subrata Bakshi wants to work for party more now, so won't contest," the party chief said at the press conference.

TMC's experienced soldiers like Sougata Roy, Dinesh Trivedi, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Kalyan Banerjee, Sisir Adhikari have once again been relied upon by Banerjee.

TMC's young leaders feature in list:

Making the candidate list a mix of all, Banerjee inducted sufficient youth for the crucial polls, which will decide whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP will rule the country for a straight second term.

Banerjee's nephew and sitting MP Abhishek Banerjee, current MLA and party spokesperson Mahua Moitra, former Congress leader Mausam Noor are some of the relatively young but experienced lot who will fight the upcoming Lok Sabha polls for the ruling party of West Bengal.

Banerjee boasts on women candidates:

The candidate list of TMC is having a bigger participation of women than the last time prompting Banerjee to tweet, "I want to thank Ma Mati Manush. Greetings to all. Today we announced our list of 2019 Lok Sabha candidates for Bengal & some other States.I am all the more happy & proud because 41% of our candidates (17/42 seats) are women. Trinamool’s list speaks for itself."

On the International Women Day too, the Chief Minister took a dig at her political foe BJP stating it is only her party which has a huge reservation for women and she doesn't lecture like the saffron outfit regarding women's reservation.

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