West Bengal Assembly Polls 2021: Mamata To Contest From Nandigram, Releases List Of TMC Candidates For 291 Seats

Setting the stage for a high-octane political battle, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Friday (5 March) released the candidates list for 291 assembly seats in the state. The remaining three seats in Darjeeling will be contested by Trinamool allies. The party will not be putting up candidates there, she said.

“Only Trinamool Congress can take Bengal to new heights,” Banerjee said.

Adding star power to the list, the Trinamool chief accommodated a slew of Bengali film and television industry representatives in the party candidates list for the upcoming state assembly polls.

The Trinamool chief also announced that she will be contesting from East Midnapore’s Nandigram seat. “I will contest from Nandigram. I keep my promises,” she said while releasing the list here at her Kalighat residence, urging people to have faith in her.

The list of 291 TMC candidates included 50 women, 42 Muslim candidates and a slew of Bengal’s Tollywood celebrities who had joined the Trinamool bandwagon recently.

Banerjee said that she will contest from East Midnapore’s Nandigram this time. “I am going to Nandigram on 9th March. On 10th March, I will file the nomination at Haldia,” she said.

State power minister and Trinamool Congress veteran Sovandeb Chatterjee will contest from the Bhawanipore seat as Mamata chose to contest from Nandigram. Ex-Trinamool councillor Debashis Kumar will contest from Rashbihari seat, in place of Chatterjee.

“I have given importance to young people this time while choosing the name of candidates. They all are young people. We have given assembly poll tickets to eminent personalities from the field of arts, sports, media and culture,” Banerjee said.

She said that as many as 23-24 existing Trinamool legislators have been dropped from the candidate list owing to age-related issues and other reasons.

Former Congress leader and Jadavpur University professor Om Prakash Mishra will contest from Siliguri on a Trinamool ticket.

Banerjee also thanked Tejashwi Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal, Hemant Soren and Shiv Sena for extending their support to the Trinamool Congress in the upcoming state assembly elections.

West Bengal will go to polls in eight phases between 27 March and 29 April. Counting of votes will take place on 2 May.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)