Didi picks Nandigram, list out

Shubhadeep Choudhury

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 5

Accepting the challenge thrown by the BJP at her, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced she would contest only from one seat — Nandigram.

Releasing the list of Trinamool Congress candidates at her Kolkata residence, Banerjee said Power Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay would contest from Bhabanipur, won by her in 2016 and 2011. “Sobhandeb lives in Bhabanipur,” she said.

Banerjee took everyone by surprise when she had announced at a rally in Nandigram in January she would contest from the seat. Suvendu Adhikari, who won the seat in 2016 as TMC nominee, had switched to the BJP shortly before and the CM appeared keen to teach him a lesson.

The BJP responded to Mamata’s announcement by resorting to propaganda saying Banerjee, unsure about winning from Nandigram, would also contest simultaneously from Bhabanipur.

With the TMC supremo on Friday ruling out contesting from any other constituency but Nandigram, the stage is set for a fierce contest between her and Adhikari, who is expected to be the BJP candidate. The agitation in Nandigram over land acquisition in the late 2000s catapulted Banerjee to power in 2011, ending 34 years of the Left rule. The TMC has announced names for 291 of the total 294 constituencies. Mamata said the TMC would back its “friends” in the three hill segments of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong.

Accepts BJP challenge

• After her aide Suvendu Adhikari joined BJP, Mamata announced she would fight from Nandigram
• Adhikari, Nandigram MLA, had claimed he would defeat Didi by at least 50,000 votes
• Mamata has vacated traditional Bhabanipur seat that she had won in 2011 and 2016
• By vacating her bastion, she has accepted BJP’s challenge to contest from only one seat
• TMC has dropped 24 MLAs; list has 50 women, 35 Muslims, 79 SC, 17 ST candidates