MAMATA'S LONE MARCH

Scattering to the winds any remaining vestige of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on March 10 announced party candidates from all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

- Arkamoy Datta Majumdar

Among the prominent names were Mahua Moitra from Krishnanagar, signifying confidence in her even after she was expelled from Parliament; Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur, where he is likely to take on state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury; Shatrughan Sinha from Asansol; Kirti Azad from Bardhaman-Durgapur and Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat. The BJP MLA from Ranaghat South, Adhikari joined the TMC on March 7 after the BJP denied him a ticket. Adhikari is an influential member of the politically significant Matua community that had migrated from Bangladesh and has been clamouring for Indian citizenship for long. In recent years, many Matuas became BJP supporters due to the party’s promise to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Adhikari’s joining the TMC and the Centre’s announcement that it notified the rules to implement the Act on March 11 has an interesting cause-and-effect colour to it. However, while the TMC has decided to take on the BJP alone on its own turf, a tug of war has now broken out between the archrivals over the women voters of Bengal, with the BJP making desperate attempts to deplete Mamata’s support base in the wake of the Sandeshkhali incident.