Deepa Dasmunshi replaces Om Prakash Misra as Congress candidate from Bhowanipore

Deepa Dasmunshi will fight against Mamata Banerjee in the Bhowanipore Assembly seat.

Interestingly, Om Prakash Misra, one of the chief advocates of tie up with the CPI(M) is not contesting in the polls after Congress High Command punished him for carrying out election campaign in Bhowanipore without its permission.

Dasmunshi was an MLA from Goalpukur. She was defeated by a narrow margin in 2014 Lok Sabha election by Mohammad Selim after Trinamool fielded Sudhir Ranjan Dasmunshi, brother of Priya Ranjan Das Munshi. WBPCC president Adhir Chowdhury wanted Deepa to contest from the seat as she is considered to be an arch rival of Banerjee. Dasmunshi met party’s chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Thursday and it was learnt that she had requested her to contest from the seat. BJP’s Chandra Bose will be contesting from the seat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to come to address a rally in support of Bose. Bhowanipore was a traditional Congress stronghold till Trinamool Congress was set up in the mid 1990s. The old guards of Congress have retired from politics and the young generation is rallying behind Trinamool Congress. There are non Bengali voters and in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP candidate got 200 votes more than his counterpart in Trinamool. But the Modi wave is non-existent now and even the non Bengali voters are supporting Trinamool for implementing several schemes that had given much relief to people. Water-logging in some pockets of Bhowanipore was a major issue. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC)’s scheme to combat water logging has been very effective. Also, the beautification of parks and sweeping of roads three times a day have gone well with the voters. Congress veteran Shankar Singh will contest from Ranaghat West. The alliance between Congress and CPI(M) in the constituency has not gone well with the people as they have seen the torture of CPI(M) on Congress workers in the past 34 years.

Arunabha Ghosh will contest from Salt Lake. Ghosh lost to Subhas Chakraborty from Belgachia East and later became an MLA from Dum Dum in Trinamool’s ticket. He rejoined Congress and will be facing Sujit Basu, the sitting MLA from the area. Amitava Mukherjee popularly known as Kaltu will contest from Shyampur where Trinamool’s candidate is the sitting MLA Sashi Panja. Abdul Mannan, will contest from Champdani.