The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday, March 10, announced its list of candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats of West Bengal, dropping a few sitting MPs and introducing fresh faces like former cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kriti Azad. The party has renominated 16 sitting MPs and fielded 12 women.
The list has dealt a severe blow to the I.N.D.I.A alliance. TMC was one of the strongest ally of the opposition alliance but months after its formation, TMC has made it clear that it will fly solo and won't share even a single seat with I.N.D.I.A alliance.
Yusuf Pathan will contest from Baharampur, and Kriti Azad will vie for Bardhaman-Durgapur. Shatrughan Sinha will contest from Asansol. Notably, Haji Nurul Islam replaces Nusrat Jahan in Basirhat, and Mahua Moitra remains in the fray for Krishnanagar, for the second consecutive term.
The list was announced during TMC's mega rally at Brigade Parade Grounds in Kolkata, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the party will contest Lok Sabha elections alone in all 42 seats in the state.
Though TMC's list was released today, it was clear for quite some time that all is not well in the I.N.D.I.A alliance. When TMC and Mamta Banerjee snubbed Rahul Gandhi when his Bharat Jodo entered West Bengal, it made the rift public.
Congress' Jairam Ramesh has reacted to TMC's list and has posted on X that, 'The Indian National Congress has repeatedly declared its desire to have a respectable seat-sharing agreement with the TMC in West Bengal. The Indian National Congress has always maintained that such an agreement has to be finalised through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements. The Indian National Congress has always wanted the INDIA group to fight the BJP together.'
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, TMC secured 34 seats, Congress 4 and BJP 2. In 2019, though TMC continued to win the maximum seats, but it was much lower than its 2014 performance. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, TMC got 22 seats, Congress won only 2 seats and BJP secured 18 seats.
Here's the full list of TMC candidates:
| Constituency | Candidate |
| Cooch Behar (SC) | Jagadish C Basuniya |
| Alipurduar (ST) | Prakash Chik Baraik |
| Jalpaiguri (SC) | Nirmal Ch Roy |
| Darjeeling | Gopal Lama |
| Raiganj | Krishna Kalyani |
| Balurghat | Biplab Mitra |
| Malda Uttar | Prasun Banerjee |
| Malda Dakshin | Shahnawaz Ali Raihan |
| Jangipur | Khalilur Rahman |
| Berhampore | Yusuf Pathan |
| Murshidabad | Abu Taher Khan |
| Krishnanagar | Mahua Moitra |
| Ranaghat (SC) | Mukut Mani Adhikari |
| Bongaon | Biswajit Das |
| Barrackpore | Partha Bhowmick |
| Dum Dum | Prof Saugata Roy |
| Barasat | Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar |
| Joynagar (SC) | Pratima Mondal |
| Mathurapur (SC) | Bapi Halder |
| Diamond Harbour | Abhishek Banerjee |
| Jadavpur | Saayoni Ghosh |
| Kolkata Dakshin | Mala Roy |
| Kolkata Uttar | Sudip Bandhopadhyay |
| Howrah | Prasun Banerjee |
| Uluberia | Sajda Ahmed |
| Serampore | Kalyan Banerjee |
| Hooghly | Rachana Banerjee |
| Arambagh (SC) | Mitali Bag |
| Tamluk | Debangshu Bhattacharya |
| Kanthi | Uttam Barik |
| Ghatal | Deepak Adhikari (Dev) |
| Jhargram (ST) | Kalipada Soren |
| Medinipur | June Malia |
| Purulia | Shantiram Mahato |
| Bankura | Arup Chakrabarty |
| Bishnupur (SC) | Sujata Mondal |
| Bardhaman Purba (SC) | Dr Sharmila Sarkar |
| Bardhaman Durgapur | Kirti Azad |
| Asansol | Shatrughan Sinha |
| Bolpur (SC) | Asit Kumar Mal |
| Birbhum | Satabdi Roy |
First Published: Mar 10, 2024 3:07 PM IST
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