The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal was forced to replace at least four of its election candidates amid protests on Friday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party too replaced one of its candidates on Thursday even though protests have been going on in multiple constituencies since Sunday.
“The All India Trinamool Congress would like to inform about the replacement of candidates for Nadia district’s Kalyani constituency, North 24 Pargana district’s Ashoknagar and Amdanga constituencies and Birbhum district’s Dubrajpur constituency,” said a statement issued by the TMC.
In North 24 Parganas, the party had pitted sitting MLA Dhiman Roy from Ashoknagar. But after protests, the party fielded Narayan Goswami. In the same district the TMC had fielded Mustaque Mortaza from Amdanga. But now the party has fielded local MLA Rafiqur Rehman after protests.
The party’s MLA from Kalyani in Nadia, Ramendranath Biswas who was initially fielded has now been replaced by Aniruddha Biswas. In Birbhum, the candidate Ashima Dhibar has been replaced with Debabrata Saha.
The BJP too was forced to change its candidate from Alipurduar in north Bengal after protests broke out. The party had fielded former Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri from the seat. The party named a local leader Suman Kanjilal on Thursday.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee took a swipe at the BJP saying: “The traitors who betrayed TMC have now become candidates in BJP. The old timers of BJP are nowhere to be seen. They are hurt and crying in their houses. Some people from CPIM and some corrupt leaders of the TMC now rule the roost in BJP,” said Banerjee.
{{/usCountry}}Chief minister Mamata Banerjee took a swipe at the BJP saying: “The traitors who betrayed TMC have now become candidates in BJP. The old timers of BJP are nowhere to be seen. They are hurt and crying in their houses. Some people from CPIM and some corrupt leaders of the TMC now rule the roost in BJP,” said Banerjee.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP hit back saying that Banerjee’s party did the same thing in 2011 when the TMC came to power.
“When the TMC came to power in 2011 she did the same thing. Her party inducted CPIM and Congress men and leaders. They were given tickets. She has no right to talk about values,” said Rahul Sinha, BJP leader.
In another embarrassment for the BJP, two of its candidates have already said that they were not going to contest the polls and their names were included without consulting them.
While Sikha Mitra’s name was announced from Chowringhee, Tarun Saha was fielded from Belgachia–Kashipur. Mitra is the wife of former West Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra, Saha is the husband of local TMC MLA Mala Saha.
The TMC had to earlier replace another candidate Sarala Murmu who was fielded from Habibpur in Malda after she sided with the BJP. Later the party fielded Pradeep Baskey.