Anti-Incumbency Fears Loom Large Over Trinamool's List

Trinamool Congress chairperson’s choice of venue to announce the names of her party's 42 contestants for West Bengal for as many Lok Sabha seats in the state was dramatic.

She made the announcement at a rally in Kolkata, Sunday (10 March). The rally was organised to protest the Union Government’s alleged non-disbursal of funds for various development and welfare schemes and projects in the state.

The dramatic manner of this announcement did not, however, mask the apprehensions and frivolity that dictated the choice of candidates. 

In what is seen as an acknowledgement of the anti-incumbency against her party, Banerjee has given tickets to 26 new faces. 

Some of the party's 22 Lok Sabha MPs have been denied tickets. Prominent among them are Basirhat MP Nusrat Jahan who came in for harsh criticism for her failure to visit Sandeshkhali (which falls in her constituency) even once. 

Banerjee's obsession with actors though was reflected in her choice of new candidates for at least three seats: Rachana Banerjee from Hooghly, June Maliah from Medinipur and Sayoni Ghosh from Jadavpur. 

BJP’s Locket Chatterjee won Hooghly in 2019, defeating Trinamool’s Ratna De Nag who is now a minister in Mamata’s cabinet. Former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh had trounced senior Trinamool leader Manas Ranjan Bhunia (a defector to the party from the Congress) in 2019 in Medinipur.

While the BJP has renominated Locket Chatterjee from Hooghly, it has not announced its candidate from Medinipur.   

Sayoni Ghosh will replace the Trinamool’s incumbent Jadavpur MP, Mimi Chakraborty (also an actor) who expressed her desire to retire from active politics to concentrate on her career. 

The Trinamool chairperson sent a strong message to the Congress--she’s angry with the party for not accepting her offer of two Lok Sabha seats and for rejecting her request to snap ties with the CPI(M) in Bengal--by nominating cricketer Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur. 

Baharampur is the turf of veteran Congress leader and Gandhi family loyalist Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. He has won this seat for the past five times since 1999. 

Adhir has been a vocal critic of Mamata Banerjee and has often matched the BJP in his criticism of Banerjee and her party. 

But the choice of Pathan, who hails from Gujarat, for this seat is seen as a display of Banerjee's whimsical approach. She could have nominated a heavyweight Trinamool leader--and there are quite a few in Murshidabad district (Baharampur is in that district) itself. 

Banerjee’s choice of Pathan is also regarded as a display of her fixation with celebrities, besides being a choice that exposes the hollowness of her party’s charge about the BJP being a party of ‘outsiders’. 

Another ‘outsider’ candidate she has nominated is Kirti Azad from Bardhaman-Durgapur. Azad is from Bihar. 

Among the fresh faces that Banerjee has nominated is the party’s head of IT cell, Debangshu Bhattacharya from Tamluk. He is the one who created the Trinamool’s ‘Khela Hobe’ war cry in the 2021 Assembly elections (read this). 

Tamluk is the turf of the Adhikari family (Suvendu Adhikari, his brothers and his father Sisir Adhikari). Bhattacharya, notwithstanding his personal loyalty to Mamata Banerjee, lacks the experience to rival the Adhikaris. 

Another lightweight nominated by Mamata Banerjee is former bureaucrat Gopal Lama from Darjeeling. Darjeeling is a BJP bastion and Lama is an unknown face. Lama was not even seen as a reputable bureaucrat during his decades in service as a state civil services officer.

Mamata Banerjee nominated former BJP MLAs (who defected to the Trinamool) Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj and Mukut Mani Adhikari (read this) from Ranaghat. Adhikari is a leader of the Matua community that has a sizeable presence in Ranaghat. 

Many seats where Mamata Banerjee has nominated fresh faces are expected to witness revolts by party veterans and ticket aspirants who have been sidelined. 

In summary, Mamata Banerjee's selection of numerous candidates and the venue for her announcement suggest a lack of depth in her decisions and approach.