Kolkata (Agency): Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced 42 candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, which featured several bigwigs, including former Team India cricketer Yusuf Pathan. He will contest from the Baharampur constituency, which is currently held by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Congress is yet to announce its candidate from Baharampur. However, Adhir Chowdhury may re-contest from the constituency, which he has represented as many as five times.
Trinamool Congress released its Lok Sabha candidates’ list at a mega rally at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground – a first for the party. The names were announced by Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee as the party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee paraded with the 42 candidates at the ground amid a massive gathering.
The 42 names feature many Tollywood (Bengali film industry) stars, including popular actor Rachana Banerjee from Hooghly. She was fielded opposite BJP candidate Locket Chatterjee.
June Malia, Deepak Adhikari (known as ‘Dev’), and Satabdi Roy – all popular Tollywood actors – also feature in Trinamool’s 42 candidates’ list. June was fielded from Medinipur, Dev from Ghatal, and Shatabdi from Birbhum.
Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December in the cash-for-query controversy, has been fielded from the Krishnanagar constituency – the seat she held before the removal from Parliament.
Two of the big names missing from the list were Nusrat Jahan and Mimi Chakraborty. In 2019 elections, Nusrat and Mimi represented Basirhat and Jadavpur seats, respectively. This year, they have been replaced by Nurul Islam and Saayoni Ghosh, respectively.
A total of 18 women candidates feature in the list.
Here’s the complete list:
1. Cooch Behar (SC) – Jagadish C Basuniya
2. Alipurduar (ST) – Prakash Chik Baraik
3. Jalpaiguri (SC) – Nirmal Ch Roy
4. Darjeeling – Gopal Lama
5. Raiganj – Krishna Kalyani
6. Balurghat – Biplab Mitra
7. Malda Uttar – Prasun Banerjee
8. Malda Dakshin – Shahnawaz Ali Raihan
9. Jangipur – Khalilur Rahman
10. Baharampur – Yusuf Pathan
11. Murshidabad – Abu Taher Khan
12. Krishnanagar – Mahua Moitra
13. Ranaghat (SC) – Mukut Mani Adhikari
14. Bongaon – Biswajit Das
15. Barrackpore – Partha Bhowmick
16. Dum Dum – Saugata Roy
17. Barasat – Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar
18. Basirhat – Nurul Islam
19. Joynagar (SC) – Pratima Mondal
20. Mathurapur (SC) – Bapi Halder
21. Diamond Harbour – Abhishek Banerjee
22. Jadavpur – Saayoni Ghosh
23. Kolkata Dakshin – Mala Roy
24. Kolkata Uttar – Sudip Bandhopadhyay
25. Howrah – Prasun Banerjee
26. Uluberia – Sajda Ahmed
27. Serampore – Kalyan Banerjee
28. Hooghly – Rachana Banerjee
29. Arambagh (SC) – Mitali Bag
30. Tamluk – Debangshu Bhattacharya
31. Kanthi – Uttam Barik
32. Ghatal – Deepak Adhikari (Dev)
33. Jhargram (ST) – Kalipada Soren
34. Medinipur – June Malia
35. Purulia – Shantiram Mahato
36. Bankura – Arup Chakrabarty
37. Bishnupur (SC) – Sujata Mondal
38. Bardhaman Purba (SC) – Sharmila Sarkar
39. Bardhaman Durgapur – Kirti Azad
40. Asansol – Shatrughan Sinha
41. Bolpur (SC) – Asit Kumar Mal
42. Birbhum – Satabdi Roy