Mamata mixes incumbents, newcomers in high-stakes polls
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will take on her former aide-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP in Bhabanipur, setting up a high-stakes contest in the upcoming Assembly elections.
The Bhabanipur contest is expected rekindle the 2021 Banerjee-Adhikari rivalry in Nandigram, where the BJP chief in the State defeated the CM by a narrow margin despite the TMC sweeping the State.
Announcing candidates, Banerjee said the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) will contest 291 of the 294 seats, leaving three in the Darjeeling hills to ally Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM). The party is seeking a record fourth consecutive term.
The TMC has also dropped 74 sitting MLAs — nearly a third of its strength — in an attempt to counter anti-incumbency while retaining its organisational base. Of 224 MLAs, 135 (around 60 per cent) have been retained and 15 shifted to new constituencies.
Senior ministers Firhad Hakim, Arup Biswas and Chandrima Bhattacharya have been renominated from their current seats.
Among notable candidates, Olympian Swapna Barman will contest from Rajganj, while former cricketer Shib Shankar Pal has been fielded from Tufanganj. Actor-politician Soham Chakraborty has been shifted to Tehatta, and party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh will make his Assembly poll debut from Beliaghata.
Prominent omissions include Barasat MLA Chiranjeet Chakraborty, Behala West legislator Partha Chatterjee and Beliaghata MLA Paresh Pal. The party has also introduced younger candidates such as Shreya Pandey (Maniktala) and Sirsan Banerjee (Uttarpara), son of TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee.
In Nandigram, a politically significant seat, the TMC has fielded Pabitra Kar, a former BJP-linked panchayat leader who recently returned to the party, in a bid to consolidate local support.
The candidate list includes 52 women, 95 SC/ST candidates and 47 minority candidates, reflecting the party’s emphasis on social representation alongside a mix of incumbents, newcomers and grassroots leaders.
