Mamata family member gets TMC ticket for municipal polls

Kolkata: Though Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier raised questions about giving tickets to family members, Kazri Banerjee, wife of Mamata Banerjee’s brother Kartik Banerjee, has been given a Trinamool Congress (TMC) ticket in the Chief Minister’s ward, for municipal polls.
Ward 73 is the ward of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Ratan Malakar was the councilor in that ward. He has held that position for a long time. This time, Ratan Malakar has been dropped from the list. After Mamata Banerjee, other members of the family had not been seen in active politics. Later, nephew Abhishek Banerjee emerged. He first became active in politics as an MP. He is currently the All India General Secretary of the party. He was seen playing an important role in the party’s campaign in the last election.
Not just Kazri Banerjee, it is clear from several names in the list of candidates that importance has been given to family members in the TMC camp. The list includes Pooja Panja, daughter of Minister Shashi Panja, and Tanima Mukherjee, sister of the late Minister Subrata Mukherjee. Tickets were received by Sandipan Saha, son of MLA Swarnakamal Saha, Kakli Sen, wife of MP Shantanu Sen, Sourav Bhattacharya, son of Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, and Amit Singh, son of councilor Tarak Singh and Krishna Singh.
Earlier, the TMC had announced the policy of “one person, one post”. Therefore, there was speculation as to whether four MLAs, including the Kolkata corporation administrator Firhad Hakim, would be given tickets in the by-elections. Firhad Hakim, Atin Ghosh, Debabrata Majumder and Debashis Kumar from the administrative body got tickets this time as well, as two other MLAs Ratna Chattopadhyay and Paresh Pal. Besides, despite being an MP, tickets are being given to Mala Roy.
Mamata Banerjee had announced the “one man, one post” policy during the 2021 Assembly elections. She said that this policy will be effective within a month. She also said that the district presidents can no longer be ministers. It was also informed that the ministers will not be able to hold the post of district president. In accordance with this policy, some changes were made after the vote. Many lost the post of district president and new faces were brought in to replace them. This time it was thought that the same policy would be implemented in the case of the municipality.
Out of 144 seats, six have been re-nominated. Of these, six are getting tickets in their own wards, the rest have changed their wards; 39 people did not get tickets. The party leadership has left them out for various reasons.
That 39 people were not given tickets means there are names of new candidates. Besides, in the wards where the TMC is not in power, 16 more new candidates will be named. In other words, this time a total of 56 new candidates are getting a place in the TMC list of candidates for Kolkata municipality. There are 23 minority candidates and 45% women have got tickets. According to sources, Abhishek Banerjee wanted Babul Supriyo to be also put to the vote, but in the end it did not happen. The State Election Commission has announced the schedule of the polls on Thursday noon. The TMC then announced their list of candidates on Friday evening. On Friday afternoon, Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee and election strategist Prashant Kishor met at Mamata’s Banerjee’s house in Kalighat to finalize the list of candidates.