Trinamool Congress candidates’ list raises a few questions: Choice of young blood and new faces overlooking the claims of veteran politicians

A cricketer, a legendary football player and plenty of people from the Tollywood film industry — this is how the candidate list of the Trinamool Congress for the upcoming Lok Sabha election looks like

Editorial, EOI, 12 March 2024 : The list of candidates announced by Trinamool Congressfor Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal has opened a few questions begging for answers. The old guards in the party are few in number among the candidates. 

There is a proliferation of new faces; with a marked preference for personalities from the world of glamour and sports. Congress has reasons to be unhappy with the way candidates have been chosen by Trinamool in a few seats, while BJP may not have much to complain about. 

The choice of young blood and new faces while overlooking the claims of veteran politicians has rekindled the young-versus-old debate in the party. 

Among the notable old guards who have been with Trianmool chairperson Mamata Banerjee through thick and thin finding their names in the list of candidates are Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Saugata Roy, Mala Roy, Kalyan Banerjee and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. 

Among the notable sitting Trinamool candidates who have been dropped are Chaudhury Mohan Jatua at Mathurapur, and Sunil Mandal at Burdwan East, both veteran politicians. Sitting Barrackpore M.P. 

Arjun Singh has also been denied ticket, a surprising decision considering that he won theseat for BJP in 2019 but later switched over to Trinamool without surrendering his Lok Sabha seat. 

The others dropped are Aparupa Poddar at Arambagh, Mimi Chakraborty at Jadavpur and Nusrat Jahan at Basirhat. Sandeshkhali, which is now at the eye of the storm, is in Basirhat where Haji Nurul Islam will contest for Trinamool. 

Noted personalities from other states have been included in the list of candidates, among them Yusuf Pathan at Berhampore and and Kirti Azad at Bardhaman-Durgapur, both cricketers; prompting BJP West Bengal state president Sukanta Mazumdar to parody a famous dialogue from Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen to ask if there is a shortage of Bengalis in Bengal. 

West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is unhappy with this choice of Trinamool Congress at Berhampur which is his home turf and from where he is the Congress M.P.
He is worried that the division in minority votes in his constituency as a consequence between Congress and Trinamool Congress will ultimately help the BJP candidate. 

AICC leaders are in any case unhappy that Trinamool has announced candidates for all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal; leaving no scope any more for negotiations with Congress for sharing of seats. At Tamluk where the sitting Trinamool M. P. Dibyendu Adhikari is now with BJP. Trinamool has nominated greenhorn in politics Debangshu Bhattacharya. 

BJP is yet to announce the name of its candidate at Tamluk, but in any case Debangshu Bhattacharya will have to take on a a senior candidate of the BJP; either sitting candidate Dibyendu Adhikari or Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court who has sought voluntary retirement and joined the BJP. 

With the influential Adhikari family now with BJP, Trinamool may find it difficult at Kanthi. It is an accepted norm in all-India politics for personalities from the world of glamour to contest in elections, though West Bengal had been an exception in this regard before the rise of Trinamool Congress. 

Rachana Banerjee who anchors a popular talk show in the television has been fielded at Hooghly against Locket Chatterjee of BJP; also from the world of glamour but now in politics for sometime. 

At Jadavpur, always a difficult and toughly contested seat, sitting Trinamool candidate Mimi Chakraborty has been dropped in favour of Sayoni Ghosh; both being from the world of glamour. 

Since the LokSabha election in 2019, north Bengal has been a stronghold of the BJP which has already named Nisith Pramanik at Cooch Behar and Manoj Tigga at Alipurduar; both strong candidates. 

At Darjeeling, Gopal Lama is a strong candidate for Trinamool, being a son of the soil of the hills. He is, however, really the choice of Trinamool ally Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha.