Trinamool Announces Candidates for Assembly Bypolls, Springs Surprise in Matua Belt seat

The TMC has fielded former minister late Sadhan Pande's wife Supti from Maniktala and former BJP leaders Krishna Kalyani and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Raiganj and Ranaghat Dakshin respectively for the upcoming Assembly bypolls. In Bagda, party has named Madhuparna Thakur, daughter of Matua scion and TMC Rajya Sabha MP, Mamatabala Thakur.

Kolkata:The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday declared the names of the candidates for the bye-elections to four Assembly seats. These constituencies will go to the polls on July 10 and counting of votes is scheduled on July 13.

Supti Pande, whose name was already doing rounds, has been fielded from Maniktala seat in eastern Kolkata. Supti is the wife of deceased TMC legislator Sadhan Pande, who used to be a minister in Mamata Banerjee's cabinet till his demise in 2022.

From Raiganj Assembly seat in North Bengal, the TMC has decided to stick to Krishna Kalyani. Krishna had won the Raiganj seat in the 2023 Assembly elections on a BJP ticket, but had switched sides before this year’s general elections. The TMC had fielded Krishna from the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat, but was defeated by BJP’s Kartick Pal.

The same formula has been applied for the Ranaghat Dakshin Assembly segment by the TMC. Former MLA from the seat, Mukut Mani Adhikari, had won the 2023 elections on a BJP ticket. But, he switched sides ahead of the general elections after the BJP denied him a ticket. Mukut was defeated by sitting MP from Ranaghat, Jagannath Sarkar and is now being fielded from Ranaghat Dakshin Assembly seat.

A surprise of sorts has been pulled up by the Trinamool Congress, when it came to Bagda Assembly seat in North 24 Parganas district. The seat is right in the heart of the Matua-belt and going by the candidate choice of Ranaghat and Raiganj, it was speculated that Biswajit Das, former MLA of Bagda, would be the party’s choice from the seat in the bypolls.

Biswajit has close proximity with the Matua headquarters in Thakurnagar and had won the Assembly elections on a BJP ticket, but had switched to Trinamool Congress ahead to the Lok Sabha elections. He was defeated in the polls by BJP’s Shantanu Thakur from the Bangaon Lok Sabha seat.

The Trinamool Congress, however, gave Biswajit a slip and has chosen Madhuparna Thakur as the party’s candidate for the Bagda Assembly bye-election. Madhuparna is the daughter of Matua scion Mamatabala Thakur, who is a TMC Rajya Sabha MP, and had shot to the limelight last month after she started an indefinite protest against Shantanu Thakur.

She had alleged that Shantanu and his associates were blocking access of other members of the family to Boro Maa’s (Matua matriarch Binapani Devi) room and idol. Santanu is the grandson of Binapani Devi, while Mamatabala Thakur is her daughter-in-law.

Earlier in April, the squabble inside the Matua headquarters in Thakurnagar took an ugly turn when the Trinamool Congress alleged that Shantanu Thakur had attacked Mamatabala over control of the house of Binapani Devi.

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