The names of eight sitting MLAs in north Bengal were dropped from the Trinamul Congress’s list of candidates by Mamata Banerjee who on Friday also nominated around 15 fresh faces in the region for the contest.
At a number of locations, Trinamul supporters joined celebrations, held rallies and started drawing graffiti on walls after the announcement. But an underlying tone of disgruntlement prevailed in many Assembly seats, with occasional outbursts by Trinamul supporters witnessed at some locations.
As Mamata read out the list, it was found that eight sitting MLAs have been dropped from the fray. Three from Cooch Behar, two from North Dinajpur and one each from Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and South Dinajpur districts were denied tickets.
Those who have been dropped include Bachchu Hansda, the Trinamul MLA of Tapan in South Dinajpur, who is the minister of state in the north Bengal development department.
In north Bengal, the party nominated around 25 candidates for the first time.
“However, among them are a number of sitting MLAs who had defected to Trinamul after 2016 and also former MLAs who had contested in earlier elections. Apart from them, around 15 new faces have been fielded in north Bengal seats,” said a political observer.
Protests rocked Raiganj since Friday morning as over 100 Trinamul supporters hit the streets, demanding that the party field a “son of the soil” in the Assembly seat. They raised slogans in support of Arindam Sarkar, a district Trinamul leader who is also the immediate past vice-chairman of the local civic body.
The demonstrations continued as the party announced the name of Kanaialal Agarwala, the district Trinamul chief of North Dinajpur, as the candidate for Raiganj.
“He is based in Islampur. The party should have found some other seat for him. It is disappointing that he has been sent here and aspirations of party leaders and workers of Raiganj subdivision have been ignored,” said a Trinamul worker.
The protests left Agarwala and other district leaders red-faced. “We will talk to them. They should understand that the final decision is taken by the top leadership,” he said.
Supporters blocked NH34 for one hour at Itihar in North Dinajpur as sitting MLA Amal Acharya was denied the Trinamul ticket.
Such outbursts were also witnessed in Siliguri as Mamata named Omprakash Mishra as the candidate for the seat.
Nantu Paul, a veteran party leader, was the first to register his disappointment. “We had made it clear that the candidate should be a Siliguri resident. But the party has taken some other decisions,” said Paul, who is the vice-chairman of the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority.
Hundreds of residents across the city were also found venting their grudge through the social media and raising questions as to why the ruling party of the state could not find a local candidate.
“In 2011, we had fielded Rudranath Bhattacharya, a local doctor, and had achieved success. But in 2016, the party made an experiment by bringing in Bhaichung Bhutia who was defeated. It is surprising to see why the party leadership is making the same mistake,” said a Trinamul leader.
The residents of the city also asked if state tourism minister Gautam Deb could be fielded in a seat that covers some areas of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation and if local candidates could be found for Matigara-Naxalbari and Phansidewa — the two other Assembly seats of Siliguri subdivision – why the party could not find a “son of the soil” for Siliguri, considered as the most prestigious seat of north Bengal.
According to Trinamul sources, a number of local party leaders have been vying for the candidature.
“There was a chance that if one of them is made a candidate, there might be inner differences and thus the poll results can be affected. That is why, it seems, the party has decided to field somebody from outside,” said a source.
There are, however, others, who refused to buy the theory. The same logic was elaborated when Bhaichung’s name was announced in 2016 but the strategy eventually did not work, they said.
