Fields candidates against NaMo, Sonia, Rahul
In what is being seen as Mamata Banerjee’s attempt to go flat out against star candidates of all mainstream political parties, her Trinamool Congress has released names of 18 candidates, including those for high-profile seats of Rae Bareli, Amethi, Varanasi, lucknow, Azamgarh, Chandni Chowk et al.
Senior party leader and former Railway Minister Mukul Roy said his party was fielding good and “surprise candidates” from places like Rae Bareli from where Congress president Sonia Gandhi is the sitting MP.
Apparently the party was doing so in order to make Banerjee relevant in the national politics, insiders said. “If you want to think national you also have to act national,” a senior leader said.
In what could go some distance impressing the minority electorate in Bengal which had for the past a few months been questioning her Government’s “high sounding promises but no performance”, the Trinamool supremo has fielded a candidate against BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as well.
“We do not know who will contest from Rae Bareli, Amethi or Varanasi. We do not know either whether it is Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi or Narendra Modi. We only know that we will have to contest against the Congress and the BJP in these seats and we are fielding our candidates accordingly,” a senior leader from the Trinamool Congress said.
Indira Tiwari, the granddaughter of former UP Chief Minister Kamalapati Tripathi, would contest against Modi from Varanasi.
“There are more than a lakh Bengali voters in Varanasi,” a Trinamool leader said adding Banerjee would personally campaign there.
likewise, the Trinamool Congress has put up Md Saryar Malik against BJP president Rajnath Singh in lucknow. “This move will definitely clear doubts that we are as against the BJP as we are against the Congress,” a senior Trinamool leader said pointing at the accusations often levelled by the Marxists in Bengal.
In a clear display of her unadulterated contempt for Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav who had ditched Banerjee ahead of the presidential elections in 2012, the Bengal Chief Minister has fielded Madanmohan Mishra against the SP supremo at Azamgarh. The Trinamool earlier fielded Dr Parvez Ahmed, son of former President Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, from Barpeta in Assam.
The Trinamool has also fielded a candidate from Chandni Chowk in Delhi against Union Minister Kapil Sibal. The party is also contesting from East Delhi whereas it has fielded film star of the sixties Biswajit from New Delhi seat.