New Delhi/Kolkata, Mar 29 (PTI) The Congress on Sunday released its first list of 284 candidates for the West Bengal Assembly polls, fielding former state unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Baharampur and ex-TMC MP Mausam Noor from Malatipur.
The Congress, which is going solo in the polls for the 294 assembly seats in the state, announced the names of 284 candidates in one go.
While Chowdhury has been fielded from Baharampur and Noor, who joined the Congress recently from Malatipur, the party also fielded Madhap Rai from Darjeeling, Abdul Hannan from Sujapur, Susmita Biswas from Dum Dum, Gautam Bhattacharya from Diamond Harbour, Souvik Mukherjee from Asansol Dakshin and Prasenjit Puitandi from Asansol Uttar.
The grand old party has fielded South Kolkata district president Pradip Prasad from the prestigious Bhabanipur Assembly seat, which is set to witness a high-voltage contest between Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.
Senior state Congress leader Suman Roy Chaudhuri, who has been nominated for the Manicktala seat, said the party has “carefully selected candidates with strong organisational roots”.
“I am grateful to the party leadership for nominating me. I will try to keep up to the expectations. I will work with all to build up an infrastructure in the area for the future,” Roy Chaudhuri told PTI.
“Prasad has been working at the grassroots in South Kolkata for years. We are confident he will put up a strong fight in Bhabanipur,” he said.
Apart from Bhabanipur, the Nandigram Assembly seat is also drawing significant attention as Adhikari is in the fray from there as well. The Congress has fielded young leader Jariyatul Hossain from the constituency.
In Uttar Dinajpur’s Chakulia seat, the party has again reposed faith in Ali Imran Ramz (Victor) despite recent allegations of domestic violence levelled against him by his wife, who had protested at the party’s Delhi headquarters and written to senior leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress has also fielded Rohan Mitra, son of the late party leader Somen Mitra, from Ballygunge.
The party’s first list includes several former MLAs, though notably, the name of state Congress president Subhankar Sarkar does not feature in it.
The announcement of candidates came a day after top Congress leaders held detailed deliberations on the list for the West Bengal assembly elections during the meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) here.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, along with AICC general secretary, Organisation, K C Venugopal and leaders from West Bengal, had attended the meeting.
Prominent attendees also included former state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and CEC members — Ambika Soni, Madhusudan Mistry, Salman Khurshid, T S Singhdeo, K J George, P L Punia and Amee Yajnik — besides AICC in-charge for West Bengal, Ghulam Ahmed Mir.
Mir had told reporters that the party had received 2,500 applications for the 294 assembly seats.
West Bengal assembly elections are being held in two phases on April 23 and 29. The votes will be counted on May 4. PTI ASK SCH RHL MNB
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