Kolkata: In line with its theme of Bangla Nijer Meyekei Chai (Bengal wants its own daughter), Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is likely to field at least 30 to 35 per cent women candidates in the upcoming assembly elections.
It will be almost a two-fold rise from the 2016 assembly polls when the party fielded 45 women candidates.
According to top TMC leaders, who are part of the party’s 12-member selection committee led by the chief minister, there will also be a purge of sitting MLAs in constituencies where the party trailed during 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Trinamool Congress trailed in at least 120 assembly segments in the Parliamentary polls.
In the 2016 assembly elections, the TMC had won 212 of the 294 constituencies. But around 17 of the MLAs have already joined BJP.
The party is set to drop more sitting MLAs as it has decided not to field those above 80 years of age. “The party decided not to field candidates who are above 80 years old,” Subrata Mukherjee, cabinet minister and a member in the selection committee told ThePrint.
The biggest casualty of the rule will be four-term MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya, a trusted aide of the chief minister who was her lieutenant in the Singur anti-land acquisition movement, which catapulted her to power. Bhattacharya, popularly known as ‘Mastarmasai’ (teacher), is around 88 years old.
With Bhattacharya out of the poll fray and Suvendu Adhikari having joined the BJP, Banerjee has lost two of her most trusted generals who helped her spearhead the historic land movements in Singur and Nandigram.
Among the prominent faces, Rachpal Singh, retired IPS officer, a former minister and a two-term MLA from Hooghly’s Tarakeswar, is likely to go off the TMC list.
“There will be a host of new faces. We are not giving nominations to anyone who is 80 years old and those who have secretly collaborated with the BJP and sabotaged the party,” another member of the committee told The Print, requesting anonymity. “We have selected candidates depending on their winnability.”
The leader added that the party is likely to bring in at least 40 per cent new faces, including actors from Tollywood, retired IPS officers and sports personalities who joined the party recently.
This means the Trinamool Congress may have around 80 sitting MLAs off the list, which is expected to be announced Wednesday.
Sougata Roy, MP and member of the TMC selection committee, said the 12-member panel had held a meeting at Mamata Banerjee’s residence at Kalighat Monday. “We have handed over the list to Mamata Banerjee. She will take the final call,” he told ThePrint.
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The purge
The 12-member election committee has decided to leave out a number of sitting MLAs for the upcoming elections.
A second Trinamool leader said districts such as Nadia, Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Hooghly, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Malda and parts of North 24 Parganas and Dinajpur may see the maximum purge.
In districts like East Midnapore and Howrah, where the party did not trail in 2019, but has since faced huge defections with senior district leaders shifting allegiance to the BJP, the Trinamool Congress is likely to rejig the complete list and drop many sitting MLAs, the leader added.
The BJP led in only two of the 16 seats in Suvendu Adhikari’s East Midnapore and in one of the 15 seats in Rajib Banerjee’s Howrah. Both the leaders and former members of Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet have joined the BJP. Adhikari was also the TMC observer in Malda and Murshidabad during the 2016 assembly elections.
In the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri regions, the party may get many new faces as it has to accommodate former GJM chief Bimal Gurung. He defected to the Trinamool from the BJP last year.
“MLAs of some constituencies, where Trinamool led with a very thin margin may also face the music,” the second TMC leader said. “We have not made it a general formula, though. In some cases, we have taken a call considering multiple factors. There are some leaders who might have trailed in their seats, but they solidly stand with Didi.”
The expected purge is not going down well with the sitting MLAs.
Rabindranath Bhattacharya of Singur told ThePrint he is still keen to fight elections. “I am willing to fight at this too. I led so many rallies and meetings. We regained the party’s lost ground in Singur,” he said. “But if the party decides to chop its genuine and sincere soldiers, and go by the advice of its corporate ally (read Prashant Kishor’s IPAC), it is for people to decide how Trinamool Congress has got disconnected from its Ma Mati Manush.”
The Trinamool Congress had trailed by 10,000 votes in the Singur assembly segment during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Former IPS Rachpal Singh, however, said he will abide by the party’s decision. “I never asked for a ticket. Didi nominated me in 2011 and 2016. I had gone through multiple shifts in portfolios in her first term,” Singh said. “But I stuck to the party with utmost loyalty. If I am dropped, I will respect the party’s decision and probably retire from politics.”
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