Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress announced candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, getting IPL franchise KKR’s retired star all-rounder Yusuf Pathan to pad up for his political debut alongside 25 other fresh faces, dropping five sitting MPs from the team, and settling the veteran versus-new debate by retaining several old warhorses.
Expelled Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra features among the 16 from TMC’s winning 2019 line-up to be renominated. Pathan, who played seven seasons for KKR and was part of the 2007 T20 and 2011 ODI World Cup-winning teams, will contest the Behrampore seat against a possibly formidable opponent in state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
TMC blames the latter for INDIA bloc falling apart in Bengal. Besides Pathan, 1983 ODI World Cup winner Kirti Azad figures in Mamata’s pick of new faces. The former three-time BJP MP has been fielded in Burdwan-Durgapur.
Actors Mimi Chakraborty and Nussrat Jahan are among the five who didn’t make the cut – the former had announced weeks ago that she was done with politics – but TMC ‘talent spotters’ have made sure it won’t miss the flavour of showbiz in its politics. Rachana Banerjee, producer of the TV show ‘Didi No 1’, in which Mamata appeared a few days ago, is the candidate for Hooghly. Actor and TMC state youth wing president Saayoni Ghosh replaces Mimi in Jadavpur,
Haji Nurul Islam, MLA from Haroa and ex-Basirhat MP, has been re-nominated from his old LS constituency, replacing Nussrat, who was criticised within the party for not visiting Sandeshkhali during the unrest there.
Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who won the Asansol LS bypoll in 2022, is among those on the list. TMC’s social media unit’s state in-charge Debangshu Bhattacharya is seen as a surprise pick for Tamluk, where BJP is likely to field former HC judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay. Retired IPS officer Prasun Bandyopadhyay will contest Malda North.