The TMC on Sunday announced the candidate list for all 42 Lok Sabha seats of West Bengal, dropping a few sitting MPs and bringing in several new faces such as former cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kriti Azad.
The party renominated 16 sitting MPs and fielded 12 women.
Cricketer Yusuf Pathan will contest from the Berhampore Lok Sabha seat, whereas Kirti Aazd will fight from the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.
From the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat, where Sandeshkhali is situated, TMC pitted its former MP Haji Nurul Islam by dropping sitting MP Nusrat Jahan.
The TMC also renominated expelled Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra from Krishnanagar seat for the second consecutive term.
The list was announced from TMC's mega rally held at Brigade Parada Grounds in Calcutta, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the party will contest Lok Sabha elections alone in all 42 seats in the state.
TMC's other candidates for Lok Sabha polls:
- Cooch Behar: Jagadish Chandra Basuniya
- Alipurduar: Prakash Chik Baraik
- Jalpaiguri: Nirmal Chandra Roy
- Darjeeling: Gopal Lama
- Raiganj: Krishna Kalyani
- Balurghat: Biplab Mitra
- Malda North: Prasun Banerjee (former IPS)
- Malda South: Shahnawaz Ali Raihan
- Jangipur: Khalilur Rahman
- Murshidabad: Abu Taher Khan
- Ranaghat: Mukut Mani Adhikari
- Bongaon: Biswajit Das
- Barrackpore: Partha Bhowmick
- Dum Dum: Saugata Roy
- Barasat: Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar
- Joynagar: Pratima Mondal
- Mathurapur: Bapi Haldar
- Diamond Harbour: Abhishek Banerjee
- Jadavpur: Saayoni Ghosh
- Kolkata South: Mala Roy
- Kolkata North: Sudip Bandyopadhyay
- Howrah: Prasun Banerjee
- Uluberia: Sajda Ahmed
- Serampore: Kalyan Banerjee
- Hooghly: Rachana Banerjee
- Arambagh: Mitali Bag
- Tamluk: Debangshu Bhattacharya
- Kanthi: Uttam Barik
- Ghatal: Deepak Adhikari (Dev)
- Jhargram; Kalipada Soren
- Medinipur: June Malia
- Purulia: Shantiram Mahato
- Bankura: Arup Chakrabarty
- Bishnupur: Sujata Mondal
- Bardhaman East: Sharmila Sarkar
- Asansol: Shatrughan Sinha
- Bolpur: Asit Kumar Mal
- Birbhum: Satabdi Roy
This is the first time the party will announce its candidate list from a mega public meeting at Calcutta's Brigade Parade Ground, the TMC said in a statement.
Lakhs of supporters and numerous block-level leaders were seen in the morning flocking from different districts to hear their leader, affectionately called 'Didi'.
Christened 'Jana Garjan Sabha', the mega event will feature three platforms, including a cross ramp, with Banerjee and TMC's national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee taking centre stage as the main speakers.
