Mamata names candidates, exudes confidence

Naming the candidates for 294 Assembly constituencies, Mamata Banerjee said the party would go it alone. She said the party had fielded 45 women and 57 minority candidates as against 33 women and 39 minority candidates in 2011.  

Lashing out at the CPIM and Congress and describing their proposed tie - up as “most unethical”, Banerjee said that the people of the state would not forgive such opportunistic parties. She said: “It is funny that the two parties are fighting against each other in Kerala and are friendly in West Bengal”. She said that the Trinamool’s main enemy was CPIM and they had always championed bandhs and strikes  and propagated a negative philosophy. Congress and CPIM cannot see the development that has taken place in Bengal and are spreading canards against the Trinamool Congress.”   

Lashing out at the Congress she dubbed WBPCCC leaders “Marxist Congress” she wondered how these leaders could forget the past any rally behind CPIM. She exuded confidence that the people of Bengal were firmly with the Trinamool and they would emerge victorious.

Banerjee said that the BJP had covertly supported the alliance as “BJP does not like the way Trinamool is maintaining communal harmony in West Bengal. People of West Bengal  have no faith in hand, hammer and sickle and lotus, the symbol of Congress, CPIM and BJP and will vote for ma, mati and manush.

Trinamool Congress chief said that the party’s  core committee  had prepared the list and  some sitting MLAs had been dropped.“ There are some candidates in the list  whom I do not like but as the core committee has selected them I did not raise my voice.” She assured the people that if any specific allegations were made against the candidates, they would be looked into. Banerjee thanked the Election Commission with a note of dissent. She wondered why the election in Bengal would be held in six phases when it would be held in a single day in Kerala.” 

She said  former IPS officer and  MLA from Bali, Sultan Singh had been dropped. Anup Ghosal the famous singer who was the MLA from Uttarpara  has been dropped and veteran journalist Prabir Ghosal will be contesting from the seat. Among the  new faces are cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Vaisali Dalmiya, Tushar Sil and Tollywood actor Soham Chakraborty. Siddiqullah Chowdhury will contest from Mangalkot in Burdwan.

Shilbhadra Dutta, a close associate of Mukul Roy who had been suspended from the party and recently re- inducted will contest from Barrackpore. Seuli Saha, another close associate of Roy will contest from Keshpur.

In 2011 Assembly election, Trinamool had an alliance with Congress and SUCI and the party had fielded 227 candidates while Congress had contested in 65 seats and SUCI in 2 seats.