KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress released its entire list of 291 candidates for next month’s assembly election in one go on Tuesday, keeping the party’s founder and mascot — CM Mamata Banerjee — at her home constituency of Bhowanipore.Banerjee, who started reading out the list at a press meet before handing it over to party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, set her party a target of 226 in the 294-seat assembly and, significantly, appealed to all opposition parties to come together to “vote for Bengal, vote for Trinamool”.
“This is a battle against BJP. Boycott BJP, ensure no vote for BJP. I appeal to other political parties as well — vote for Bengal. Vote for TMC, and BJP will be completely routed…. This is a fight to protect Bengal’s identity, address and asmita. BJP has no chance here,” she said.The 291-strong list (the party left three seats for ally Anit Thapa’s Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha in the Darjeeling Hills) largely reflected the party’s faith in the old guard — retaining 135 of them — but omitted as many as 74 incumbent MLAs. Prominent among them were Trinamool veteran Paresh Pal (Beleghata), Vivek Gupta (Jorasanko), former cricketer Manoj Tiwari (Shibpur), and actors Chiranjit (Barasat) and Kanchan Mullick (Uttarpara). Two cabinet ministers — Tajmul Hossein (Harishchandrapur) and Jyotsna Mandi (Ranibandh) — were also dropped. Disgraced former education minister Partha Chattopadhyay, expectedly, did not feature on the list. Ratna Chatterjee will, instead, contest from Behala West.“Some old and dedicated workers had to be left out to accommodate new faces. This is the party’s final decision and everyone should respect it. I appeal to those who could not make it this time not to lose heart. They will be given responsibilities in other party work,” Banerjee said.An overwhelming majority of the outgoing cabinet was retained, though some, like Trinamool veteran Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, changed seats. Children of old faithfuls (Kalyan Bandyopadhyay’s son, Sirsanya, and Sadhan Pande’s daughter, Shrreya) also got tickets — the list included former Left Front cabinet minister Kshiti Goswami’s daughter, Vasundhara. And, Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh will fight an assembly poll for the first time (from Beleghata).Heptathlete Swapna Barman and Bengal ex-cricketer Shibshankar Paul gave the list its fresh-face star quotient.Abhishek said the focus was on youth with 177 candidates below 60 years of age, including 42 candidates under 40 and added that 52 party nominees were women.CM Banerjee said Trinamool was a balanced party where young faces have as much importance as veteran leaders. “We have given opportunities to experienced legislators as well as students and youths who are new to politics,” she said.Expressing confidence about a sweeping victory, the Trinamool supremo said, “Our motto is ‘2026-e 226’. We work for people throughout the year unlike BJP, which appears only during elections like basanter kokil (fair-weather friend) and changes IPS officers to help distribute cash and arms.”She also criticised the Election Commission over deployment of central forces. “Bengal has been targeted. Who will bear the cost of these central forces? Schools will be occupied and education will be affected. Deploying forces inside polling booths is illegal. The EC is acting under BJP’s instructions with political bias. This is ‘Tughlaqi Raj’. If the EC is doing so much, they might as well campaign for the party,” Banerjee said.Despite that, Banerjee reiterated confidence in her party’s prospects. “EC and Centre can take away power, but they cannot take away people’s support. People vote and people are with us. Bangla will win. We will win. May 4 aayega, BJP jayega,” she said.
