Mamata Banerjee to contest from Nandigram; TMC names 291 candidates

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will contest from the Nandigram seat as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) today announced candidates for 291 seats for the state assembly elections in March-April.

Announcing the candidates list here today, Banerjee said: “I will contest from Nandigram. I am going to Nandigram on March 9. On March 10, I will file nomination at Haldia.” She was representing Bhabanipur in the earlier two terms.

The 291 candidates include 50 women, 42 minority community candidates, 79 Scheduled Caste candidates and 17 Scheduled Tribe candidates. The TMC candidates include noted personalities from the field of art, sports, media, culture etc.

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Twenty sitting MLAs, however, do not figure in the list of 291. TMC is not going to repeat 23-24 candidates in 2021 election over various reasons, Banerjee said.

TMC chief Banerjee also said her party would not contest the three North Bengal seats to facilitate its allies to contest from there. “We are not fielding our candidates in three North Bengal constituencies,” she said.

West Bengal will go to polls in eight phases between March 27 and April 29 to elect representatives to the 294-seat assembly.