Trinamool candidate seeks change of constituency
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Barely two days after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee announced the 228 candidates for the coming Assembly polls, signs of dissent are evident within the party regarding ticket, for at least one of the constituencies that figure in the list.
The party's nominee from the Entally constituency in the city has refused to contest from there, claiming that he had been earlier assured ticket for another seat.
“I am not contesting from Entally,” Tarak Banerjee, a three-time MLA from the subsequently re-constituted Kashipur constituency, told The Hindu here on Sunday.
He said that following the de-limitation of the seat, he had indicated his preference for the Shyampukur seat, his home constituency.
“Party chief Mamata Banerjee said that I instead contest from Jorasanko, to which I readily agreed. But then I found that I had been given ticket for a different seat,” Mr. Banerjee said.
“Ms. Banerjee is the supreme leader of our party. But one gets to wonder whether or not there is a greater leader in the Trinamool Congress who can revise even her decision,” he added.
“None of the party leaders discussed with me the matter of contesting from the Entally seat. That I refuse to do so has been communicated to the party,” Mr. Banerjee said.
Sources in the Trinamool Congress said Mr. Banerjee could be replaced as the party's candidate for Entally by Colonel (retired) Sabyasachi Bagchi, a former senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Ananya Dutta reports:
The future of the alliance between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress in West Bengal for the coming Assembly elections will be known on Monday — deadline set by Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee to the Congress for announcing its candidates for the 64 seats that she has set aside for it.
In what looks like a re-enactment of the drama that preceded the breakdown of discussions over seat-sharing for the 2010 civic elections, Ms. Banerjee went ahead and announced the list of her party candidates on Friday before the two parties reached a consensus on the number of seats.
The Railway Minister also said she would announce Trinamool candidates for the remaining 64 seats on Monday, if an electoral understanding was not reached by then. A decision is likely to be taken following the return of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to New Delhi on Sunday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mou Chakraborty, Hindustan Times
West Bengal, April 27, 2011
First Published: 15:00 IST(27/4/2011)
Last Updated: 15:35 IST(27/4/2011)
The Jorasanko assembly seat is set to get a taste of woman power. The three-sided battle for the ballot would feature Janki Singh of the CPI(M), Smita Bakshi of the Trinamool Congress and Mina Devi Purohit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
While the constituency is largely home to Hindi-speaking people, the character of the seat has been lent a complicated dimension following delimitation. It now comprises 11 municipal wards, including some breakaway wards from Burrabazar, Jorasanko, Jorabagan, Battala and Vidyasagar assembly seats.
While wards 42 and 43 have been inducted from Burrabazar post delimitation, Jorasanko contributes wards 39, 41 and 25 to the mix with another two wards coming from Jorabagan. The newly carved out seat also includes ward 27 from Battala seat and wards 37, 38 and 40 from Vidyasagar seat.
The ripples of delimitation had also been felt in the Trinamool rank and file, with Tarak Banerjee, three-time MLA from Cossipore and party nominee from Entally, refusing to contest the seat over claims that he wanted to be fielded from Jorasanko.
The principal Opposition outfit also had to retract from its earlier call of fielding Shantilal Jain as their nominee from Jorasanko. Though the party cited health grounds for dropping the Jorasanko nominee, sources said the decision could be attributed to the misgivings of the local minority community over Jain's alleged links with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Smita Bakshi, a four-time KMC councillor and wife of Trinamool leader Sanjay Bakshi, replaced Jain.
"We are sure of winning here not only because people of Bengal want a change in governance but also because six of the 11 wards in this constituency belong to Trinamool. We have done enough work to ensure people from other wards too vote for us. I was born and brought up in this locality and people here know me well," said Bakshi.
The CPI(M) too is geared for a tough fight. "I am hoping that my hard work will pay off. I have stressed on door-to-door campaign. I have tried to reach out to each and every person in the area. Though I am contesting the polls for the first time, I have campaigned for many Left leaders and have been associated with the party since the Sixties," said Janki Singh.
The BJP is pinning hopes on Jorasanko. Four-time councillor Mina Devi Purohit hopes to land a favourable verdict.
© Copyright © 2011 HT Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TMC MLA unhappy with candidature
KOLKATA:Trinamool Congress MLA Tarak Banerjee, who had been fielded by the party from Entally, has refused to fight the poll battle from this constituency. The three-time MLA from Cossipore wanted to fight either from Shyampukur or Jorasanko. But he was given neither of these two seats. An upset Banerjee on Sunday said he would rather withdraw his candidature than fight from a constituency he has never been associated with.
Trinamool thinktank was busy on Sunday with finding a possible replacement of Banerjee. Two names Swarna Kamal Saha and Colonel (retired) Sabyasachi Bagchi have been doing the rounds. The party might even leave the seat vacant for the Congress, if the alliance finally happens.
Tarak Banerjee said that after delimitation, part of his home constituency, Cossipore, was merged with Belgachia. Another part has been merged with Shyampukur. "When Mamata Banerjee chose somebody else for Cossipre-Belgachia, I asked for Shyampukur. Didi promised me Jorasanko seat. But after the list was published, to my utter surprise, I found that I was given Entally seat. This is not acceptable. So as a disciplined soldier of the Trinamool Congress, I decided not to fight the polls," said Banerjee.
No comments:
Post a Comment