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The Trinamool Congress has dropped at least eight sitting MPs, including its general secretary Subrata Bakshi from its list off candidates for the coming Lok Sabha polls, while Bengali film actors have yet again been roped-in as candidates.
Most successful candidates from the 2014 list have retained their seats but at least 15 changes have been made by party supremo Mamata Banerjee. The changes include bringing in new faces and veteran leaders.
Some of the changes include allying with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the dominant political party in the Darjeeling which will have a joint candidate; bringing in Mausam Benazir Noor from the Congress for the Malda Uttar seat; and two new faces in the place of expelled MPs, Anupam Hazra (in Bolpur) and Saumitra Khan (in Bishnupur).
In a shock move, the party’s general secretary Subrata Bakshi recused himself from the Kolkata-South seat. The constituency is considered to be the safest and amongst the most prestigious for the Trinamool Congress. It was previously Banerjee’s constituency until she became the Chief Minister.
According to Banerjee, six MPs have either been dropped or have “themselves requested that they be recused”, so that they can concentrate on working at a grass-root level. “Our general secretary recused himself so that he can concentrate on party work; while (Sugata) Bose is not getting permission to contest from his University,” Banerjee said announcing the candidate list for all 42 seats of West Bengal.
Sugata Bose, a history professor at Harvard and the great grand nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, won the sought after Jadavpur seat in 2014.
Other notable MPs who were dropped include actor-politicians Sandhya Roy and Tapas Paul from Midnapore and Krishnanagar seats primarily on health grounds; tribal leader Uma Soren who won from the once Maoist-affected Jhargram seat and minority leader, Idris Ali from Basirhat.
Actors in the fray
Two film actors will make their electoral debut — Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan will contest from Jadavpur and Basirhat constituencies.
This apart, Trinamool’s existing actor-turned-MP list includes Satabdi Roy and Dev (Deepak Adhikari) from Birbhum and Ghatal. Roy and Adhikari will contest from their respective seats yet again in 2019.
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