TMC changes candidates for four seats in Kolkata

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) has ushered in change in its candidate list in 4 among the 11 Assembly constituencies in Kolkata for the 2021 assembly polls.

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee announced the party's candidate list for 291 Assembly constituencies across the state on Friday barring 3 seats of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong.

TMC has fielded Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay from the Bhowanipore seat, from where party Chairperson Mamata Banerjee had contested 2016 Assembly elections. Banerjee had defeated Deepa Dasmunshi of Congress by 25301 votes.

Chattopadhyay contested from the Rashbehari seat in 2016.

Debasish Kumar, who is a member of the Board of Administrators in Kolkata Municipal Corporation, will contest from Rashbehari seat from where TMC's Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay had won by a margin of 22553 votes against Asutosh Chatterjee of Congress.

Atin Ghosh, will contest the elections from Kashipur- Belgachia seat in north Kolkata in place of Mala Saha. Saha had won against her Kaninika Bose Ghosh of CPI(M) by a margin of 25810 votes.

Vivek Gupta who is an MP representing TMC in the Rajya Sabha will fight from Jorasanko seat in place of Smita Bakshi. Bakshi had defeated Rahul Sinha of BJP by a slender margin of 6290 votes.

However during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had taken a lead from the Rashbehari Assembly seat in spite of TMC's Mala Roy securing lead in the other 6 Assembly segments and emerging victorious.

TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay had won from Kolkata North seat during 2019 Lok Sabha, but lost from Jorasanko and Shyampukur seats.

The other candidates in Kolkata have remained unchanged with Firhad Hakim contesting from Kolkata Port, Subrata Mukherjee from Ballygunge, Nayna Bandyopadhyay from Chowringhee, Swarna Kamal Saha from Entally, Paresh Paul from Beleghata, Shashi Panja from Shyampukur and Sadhan Pande from Maniktala.

In a first, Kolkata will have elections in two phases- Kolkata south (Kolkata Port, Bhowanipore, Rashbehari and Ballygunge) will have polls on April 26 in the 7th phase while Kolkata North (Chowrangee, Entally, Beliaghata, Jorasanko, Shyampukur, Maniktala, Kashipur- Belgachia) will have elections on April 29 in the 8th (last) phase.