Picture : Twitter / AITCofficial
Gearing up for the Lok Sabha polls of 2019, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has released the list of ruling TMC candidates for all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, dropping 10 sitting MPs and bringing in 18 new faces.
The development put an end to all speculations Trinamool Congress supremo yielding any ground on her home turf to the prospective partners of the proposed ‘mahagathbandhan’, a grand alliance of anti-BJP parties, of which she has been one of the most vocal proponents.
She, however, did keep alive the idea when she said the Lok Sabha polls will sound the “death knell” for the BJP and the Modi government which will be replaced by a coalition dispensation of anti-BJP parties that will create more jobs, bring about peace and stability in Jammu and Kashmir and “freedom from the pervasive atmosphere of fear”.
The list, which is a mix of seasoned political players and greenhorns, has 17 women candidates, five more than the last elections, constituting roughly 41 per cent of the candidates.
Apart from replacing 10 sitting MPs, she announced the names of eight new candidates for seats the TMC had lost in 2014. Of the 42 seats in the state, TMC had won 34.
