Not just Nandigram, Mamata may contest from a safe second seat

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, Mamata Banerjee is likely to contest from a second seat, top party sources told The Sunday Guardian.
Apart from the Nandigram seat for which Banerjee filed her nomination on Wednesday, the TMC supremo is considering contesting the election from the Tollygunge seat in south Kolkata as well.
Sources in the TMC said that Mamata Banerjee is considering this option given that she is currently injured and will not be able to campaign aggressively in Nandigram.
Banerjee was injured during her campaign in Nandigram after which she cut short her campaign from there and rushed to Kolkata for treatment.
“Mamata Banerjee is currently injured. Her leg is bandaged, which will restrict her movement for some days. This will also restrict her campaigning in Nandigram. She does not want to take any chances, which is why Tollygunge is being considered as the second seat from where Didi is likely to contest,” a source from TMC told this correspondent.
Nandigram goes to the polls on 1 April and Mamata Banerjee is fighting from there against her erstwhile trusted lieutenant Suven du Adhikari, who has switched sides to the BJP citing differences with the TMC.
Mamata Banerjee announced her candidature from the Nandigram seat in February at a public rally she was holding there, throwing a direct challenge to Suvendu Adhikari and while trying boost the morale of TMC workers in East and West Medinipur districts, which had suffered a massive setback after the exit of Adhikari and a bunch of other senior TMC leaders from the area.
Sources in the TMC also say that the party and leaders close to Mamata Banerjee have indicated this to Arup Biswas, who currently has the TMC ticket to contest from the Tollygunge seat. Sources in TMC say said that the party has asked Arup Biswas to go slow with his campaigning in the Tollygunge seat and suggested that posters and graffiti with his name should be put on hold for the time being.
Biswas is a three-time MLA from the Tollygunge seat. This seat from south Kolkata is known as a hub of the Bengali film industry and is considered as a safe seat for the TMC since the party has the backing of a large section of the industry behind it.
The Tollygunge seat will go to the polls on 10 April, while the last date of filing nomination from here is 23 March.
It is important to note here that while Mamata Banerjee was releasing the list of candidates for the party earlier this month, she had indicated that she could later consider contesting from a second seat which would be Tollygunge.