TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee speaks during a rally, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, in Kolkata.
Credit: PTI Photo
On Sunday, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress declared its candidate list for the Lok Sabha elections expected to be held in April-May this year.
Banerjee's nephew and TMC general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, announced the names of 42 candidates for all the seats in Bengal.
Abhishek surprised many when he announced the name of former cricketer Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur, which is the bastion of Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Party leader Mahua Moitra also appears among the candidates from her usual seat of Krishnanagar.
Banerjee and her team of candidates arrived at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground on Sunday afternoon as the TMC kicked off the campaign for the elections.
Banerjee also announced that the party is in talks with the Samajwadi Party for contesting in one Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Among some of the prominent names, Abhishek Banerjee will contest from Diamond Harbour, expelled Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra from Krishnanagar, Bengali film actor Dipak Adhikary from his usual constituency Ghatal, former cricketer and politician Kirti Azad from Bardhaman-Durgapur. Bollywood veteran Shatrughan Sinha will contest from Asansol.
Before announcing the names, Abhishek slammed the Modi government at the Centre, claiming that "Modi ki guarantee" has "zero warranty". He also labelled BJP leaders as "outsiders and anti-Bengal", who only visit the state during elections.
Banerjee also asserted that the people of the state will give a befitting reply to the saffron camp during the Lok Sabha elections for "withholding the state's funds".
Check out the full list of candidates here:
Coochbehar: Jagdish Chandra Basuniya
Alipurduar: Prakash Chik Baraik
Jalpaiguri: Nirmal Chandra Roy
Darjeeling: Gopal Lama
Raigunj: Krishna Kalyani
Balurghat: Biplab Mitra
Malda North: Prasun Banerjee
Malda South: Shahnawaz Ali Raihan
Jangipur: Khalilur Rehman
Baharampur: Yusuf Pathaan
Murshidabad: Abu Teher Khan
Krishnanagar: Mahua Moitra
Ranaghat: Mukutmani Adhikari
Bangaon: Biswajit Das
Barrackpore: Partha Bhowmik
Dum Dum: Sougata Roy
Barasat: Kakali Ghosh Dastidar
Basirhat: Haji Nurul Islam
Joynagar: Pratima Mondal
Mathurapur: Bapi Haldar
Diamond Harbour: Abhishek Banerjee
Jadavpur: Sayoni Ghosh
Kolkata South: Mala Roy
Kolkata North: Sudip Bandyopadhyay
Howrah: Prasun Bandyopadhyay
Uluberia: Sajdah Ahmed
Srirampore: Kalyan Banerjee
Hoogly: Rachana Banerjee
Arambagh: Mitali Bag
Tamluk: Debangshu Bhattacharya
Kanthi: Uttam Barik
Ghatal: Dipak Adhikary (Dev)
Jhargram: Kalipada Soren
Medinipur: June Malia
Purulia: Shantiram Mahato
Bankura: Arup Chakraborty
Bardhaman North: Dr. Sharmila Sarkar
Bardhaman-Durgapur: Kirti Azad
Asansol: Shatrughan Sinha
Bolpur: Asit Kumar Mal
Birbhum: Shatabdi Roy
Bishnupur: Sujata Khan