DISGRUNTLED TMC LEADERS MAY UPSET MAMATA'S APPLE CART

Many 'rootless candidates' have been fielded and Mamata Banerjee's name alone may not be enough to guarantee a win for her party.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

Mamata Banerjee striding along a ramp at the “Jana Garjan Sabha” (People’s Roar) rally at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground followed by the Trinamool Congress’ Lok Sabha candidates, while the party faithful crowded around is one of the striking images of this year’s Lok Sabha elections. As Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee announced the names, the chosen ones came and joined their supreme leader on the ramp. This was the first time that the party announced its candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats from a public meeting in one go. While the aim was to put up a united cohesive front to enthuse party members, what it did instead was lay bare the battles within and portend the rocky path ahead for the party.

In a surprise move, in that list of 42, the party fielded former cricketer Yusuf Pathan from Berhampore against Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and brought in 26 new faces to contest in the elections.

The development of 10 March put an end to all speculation over the tempestuous TMC supremo yielding any ground on her home turf to the prospective partners of the nebulous I.N.D.I.A., a so-called grand alliance of anti-BJP parties, of which she had been one of the most vocal proponents.

Besides TMC old-timers, the list includes leaders and MLAs from the Left Front and the Congress who had switched over to her party in the last few years. Rachana Banerjee, known for hosting a popular Bengali television show, has been fielded from the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat where TMC’s Ratna De Nag was defeated by the BJP’s Locket Chatterjee in 2019 Parliamentary elections. Kirti Azad, former Indian cricketer, has been fielded from Burdwan-Durgapur constituency, a seat where the BJP defeated the TMC in the 2019 elections.