Lok Sabha Elections 2019: TMC list of candidates is out; gives 41% seats to women

New Delhi, Mar 12: The Trinamool Congress on Friday released its list of 42 candidates who will be contesting the Lok Sabha elections. Former actor and TMC member Moon Moon Sen will be contesting against union minister Babul Supriyo from Asansol Lok Sabha constituency.Trinamool Congress has said that the party will have 41 percent women candidates, up from 35 percent in 2014.

Notable exceptions who did not make the cut in the TMC list are: Sugata Bose, Sandhya Roy, Uma Soren, Idris Ali, Subrata Bakshi. The state will vote in the general elections in seven phases.

Mamata Banerjee announced that filmstars Nusrat Jahan, Mimi Chakraborty will contest the Lok Sabha elections this time on behalf of TMC. Actor and Ghatal MP Dev (Deepak Adhikari) to contest again from the same seat.

Former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi will contest from Barrackpore for the third consecutive term. From Raigunj, Kanhaiyalal Agarwal is TMC candidate for Lok Sabha elections.

From Malda Uttar, former Congress MP Mausam Noor will fight on TMC symbol this time. Mohua Mitra will fight from Krishnagar and Mamata Bala Thakur will fight from Bongaon.

Before announcing the list of TMC candidates for the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, Mamata Banerjee declares the names of five sitting MPs who won't contest the polls for various reasons. "Jadavpur MP Sugata Bose will not contest because he hasn't got permission from Harvard university where he is a professor. Sandhya Roy won't contest because she is not keeping well. Senior leaders Subrata Bakshi and Uma Soren will work for the party," she said.

Banerjee has also announced that the besides West Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha seats, TMC will fight the polls from 5 parliamentary seats in Jharkhand, 6 seats in Assam, 2 seats in Bihar and the lone seat in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The party will also fight for 10 Assembly seats in Odisha.

The party will not contest in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab, but will support regional parties, Banerjee has said.