TMC initiates process to draw up draft list of candidates

Kolkata: To avoid any last minute confusion, Trinamool Congress (TMC) is learnt to have begun the process of drawing up a draft list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls amid a latent protest from a section within party-fold against fielding “part-time politicians” from the entertainment industry.

The Wednesday’s meeting held at Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence is significant in the sense that she gave a clarion call to party members to prepare for the elections starting from the booth level. She met the district leaders of West Midnapore and will subsequently meet leaders of other districts too in the coming days.

The party supremo although seems to have put a lid for now on the apparent power tussle between the veterans and the young ones in the party over who should be leading it from the frontline, another complication seems to be brewing concerning the choice of candidates for upcoming polls.

Sources said that the party does not want to see a repeat of the confusion that prevailed in 2022 ahead of the municipal elections concerning candidate lists where in several wards candidates had to be changed at the last moment as two sets of names appeared in two sets of lists for the same seat.

This had paved the way for much discomfort within the party. It was learnt that such an outcome was a result of a miscommunication between the top rung leaders of the party. The national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who was given the party reins by Mamata after the 2021 Assembly elections victory, had compiled one set of lists while another list was based on the recommendations of the party supremo. To avoid such a faux-pas this time the party has begun early preparations to draw up a draft list. Meanwhile, a tension has been simmering within the party fold which has so far remained latent but apparent. Sources said that Abhishek has proposed that members who are into full-time politics and can devote time to their constituencies be given poll tickets rather than ones who are associated with the entertainment industry and consequently cannot devote much time throughout the year.

TMC has several celebrity MPs such as Deepak Adhikari (Dev), Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan, who are able to hardly give time to politics due to their busy shooting schedules.

However, even as Dev

initially refused to contest the

elections this time, after Wednesday’s meeting Mamata is learnt to have convinced him to contest which indicates that other celebrity MPs too are likely to get tickets this time.