Mamata to announce list today .... HINT AT NEW TRINAMUL CONTESTANTS IN SOME BENGAL SEATS

TT, 12 March 2019, Calcutta: Mamata Banerjee has said she will announce Trinamul candidates for 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal on Tuesday afternoon, when she is scheduled to chair a meeting with a 12-member Trinamul steering committee for the polls and senior leaders of the party at her residence here. 

"A press conference will be held at 3.30pm tomorrow (Tuesday) after the meeting," the Bengal chief minister said while leaving Nabanna on Monday evening. 

"The names of our candidates, with the blessings of Ma, Mati, Manush, will be announced," she added. Tuesday's meeting was billed officially as the last huddle before the general election to draw up the Trinamul Congress's campaign strategy. While the committee headed by Trinamul secretary-general Partha Chatterjee was given the charge of zeroing in on prospective candidates for the 42 seats, sources in the party said Mamata had already finalised the list, which she would read out at the meeting before making their names public. 

"It is a formality that Didi usually adheres to so that it does not appear she is thrusting her own choice of candidates on the party," said a source. Although there was a speculation on the possibility of the chief minister announcing the names on coming Friday, Mamata has decided to declare the candidates before other major parties come out with their lists.

"She (Mamata) likes getting her names out there before everybody else. That is why the announcement was scheduled for Tuesday," said a Trinamul leader.

Several Trinamul leaders said the list of 42 could feature eight to 10 new names.

Sources said some of those eight Trinamul candidates who had lost in 2014 were unlikely to be fielded this time. But the leadership also has to find replacements for sitting Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan -- who joined the BJP -- and Bolpur MP Anupam Hazra, who was expelled from Trinamul for "anti-party activities".

Besides, new names are likely for Asansol and Darjeeling.

Dola Sen who had lost from Asansol in 2014 is now in the Rajya Sabha. Trinamul had fielded Bhaichung Bhutia in Darjeeling in 2014 but he formed his own party in Sikkim later.

"New names are likely for all three seats in Murshidabad, one seat in Nadia and one in West Midnapore," said a Trinamul insider. "However, as is common with Didi, there could well be last-minute surprises," he added.

A senior Trinamul leader said Mamata might announce some candidates to contest general election in neighbouring states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam and Odisha as well.

Some sitting Lok Sabha members -- Dinesh Trivedi of Barrackpore, Uma Soren of Jhargram, Sandhya Roy of Midnapore and Aparupa Poddar of Arambagh -- met Mamata at Nabanna on Monday..