West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced the list of her candidates for the upcoming assembly polls. In a bold move, Banerjee decided to give up her sitting Bhawanipore constituency and instead announced that she would only contest from the Nandigram seat against her former aide Suvendu Adhikari, now with the BJP. Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay will be the TMC candidate from Bhawanipore in south Kolkata in the coming polls.
Addressing a press conference, Banerjee announced the list of 291 candidates that include 50 women, 42 Muslims.
West Bengal assembly polls will be conducted in eight stages with the first phase of the polling scheduled to be held on 27 March. The counting will be held on 2 May.
Speaking to reporters, Banerjee said, “Khela Hobe aar jeeta hobe. (The game is on and we will win too).” Khela Hobe song has become a new internet sensation with even opposition parties drawing inspiration from the catchy rap, written by a Trinamool supporter.
Banerjee said that voting BJP power would be the destruction of the state while bringing back the Trinamool Congress to government again will be a new beginning of hope. She called the polls ‘smile elections’ assuring reporters that they too would have reason to smile on 2 May, the day of counting.
Banerjee said that 21 was her lucky number when a reporter asked if she was eyeing at 2024 Lok Sabha polls. “Let me first worry about 2021. 21 is my lucky number,” The Trinamool chief said.Banerjee said that a team of 150-200 consisting of retired IAS officers were working to ensure there was no EVM fraud this time.
Banerjee has received support from the RJD, the Samajwadi Party and the Shiv Sena after these three parties decided to not contest polls.