West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, Mamata Banerjee is likely to contest from a second seat, reports The Sunday Guardian.
According to the reports, Mamata Banerjee, who has already filed her nomination from Nandigram on Wednesday, is considering contesting from a safe second seat and may file her nomination from the Tollygunge seat in south Kolkata as well.
Top TMC sources have confirmed to Sunday Guardian that Mamata Banerjee is considering to contest from Tollygunge after suffering an injury, making it tough for her to campaign aggressively in Nandigram. In Nandigram, Mamata Banerjee faces a tough battle against her former colleague Suvendu Adhikari. Adhikari, who joined BJP recently, has already put up a formidable challenge to Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram and is expected to win from the Nandigram seat.
Mamata Banerjee, who got injured in an accident during her campaign in Nandigram, had to cut short of her campaign and rush to Kolkata for treatment. As per the sources in the TMC, Mamata Banerjee may contest from another safe seat as she finds it tough to continue the campaign in the high-profile Nandigram constituency.
“Mamata Banerjee is currently injured. Her leg is bandaged, which will restrict her movement for some days. This will also restrict her campaigning in Nandigram. She does not want to take any chances, which is why Tollygunge is being considered as the second seat from where Didi is likely to contest,” a source from TMC said to Sunday Guardian.
Interestingly, Mamata Banerjee, who announced the TMC candidates’ list for the first phase of the assembly elections on March 5, indicated that she could later consider contesting from a second seat – Tollygunge.
“I may contest as well”: Mamata Banerjee said while announcing Arup Biswas’s name from Tollygungepic.twitter.com/a7wyEGf7co
— Soumyajit Majumder (@SoumyajitWrites) March 5, 2021
Party has communicated to the candidate, directed to not to do aggressive campaign in Tollygunge
After the exit of Adhikari, Mamata Banerjee had announced that she would contest from Nandigram seat in a bid to boost the morale of TMC cadres in East and West Medinipur districts, which had suffered a massive setback after the exit of Adhikari and other senior TMC leaders from the area.
The TMC sources said that the party and leaders close to Mamata Banerjee have already communicated this to Arup Biswas, the TMC candidate from the Tollygunge seat. The party sources said that the party has asked Arup Biswas to go slow with his campaigning in the Tollygunge seat and has issued diktats not to use posters and graffiti with his name for the time being. Biswas is a three-time MLA from the Tollygunge seat.
The Tollygunge seat from south Kolkata is known as a hub of the Bengali film industry and is considered a safe seat for the TMC as it has the backing of a large section of the industry. The Tollygunge seat will go to the polls on 10 April, while the last date of filing nomination is March 23.
The Election Commission had announced that West Bengal will go to the polls in 8 phases. The elections to 294 assembly seats in the state will start from March 27 till April 29. The counting of votes will be held on May 2.
