Indian cricket player Yusuf Pathan, who is running against Congressman Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Berhampore in the Murshidabad district, is the most unexpected candidate on the TMC ticket.
The list of candidates for each of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha constituencies was released by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday. The TMC national secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, announced the candidate list, which included a few unexpected items. Notably, Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal and leader of the party, walked on the 300-foot ramp that was constructed on the rally ground alongside the nominees—something that no state had ever done before.
The most unexpected contender was Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan, who was fielded from Berhampore in the Murshidabad district to challenge state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who was Mamata Banerjee’s opponent and opposed to the TMC’s alliance as part of the INDIA coalition.
The 2011 census shows that Murshidabad has the largest Muslim population in Bengal, at 66.28 percent. Since 1999, Chowdhury has been the winner of the Berhampore seat; nevertheless, with time, his margin of victory has decreased.
Actor Rachana Banerjee emerged as the second unexpected contender, running against Locket Chatterjee, a former actor and current BJP MP for the Hooghly constituency in the Hooghly district.
A week ago, after the chief minister made an appearance on Didi No 1, the famous television reality program that the actor has been presenting for over ten years, there was talk in political circles that Rachana Banerjee would be given a seat.
Mamata Banerjee did not renominate two well-known movie stars and sitting MPs, Nusrat Jahan from North 24 Parganas district’s Basirhat (of which Sandeshkhali is a part) and Mimi Chakraborty from Jadavpur, which includes parts of Kolkata and South 24 Parganas. Mamata Banerjee did field movie star Dipak Adhikari, also known as Dev from Ghatal, which covers East and West Midnapore districts.
Another unexpected contender is Prasun Banerjee, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who quit earlier this week. He is running from the Malda North seat, which the BJP captured in 2019.
The Burdwan-Durgapur seat in the West Burdwan district, which the BJP’s S S Ahluwalia won in 2019, has been put up for election to former Indian cricket player Kirti Azad, who defected from the BJP and joined the TMC a few years ago.
The chief minister declared, “We will contest all 42 seats in West Bengal against the BJP, Left, and the Congress,” during a brief 15-minute speech at the event. Together with the Samajwadi Party, we will run for one seat in Uttar Pradesh (SP). I spoke with Akhilesh, or Yadav. We are Meghalaya’s opposition party. We will compete both there and in Assam.