14.3.19

TMC gives 40% of its LS tickets to women

Trinamool Congress gave tickets to 17 women in its list for all 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal. By giving 40% of the seats to women candidates, Mamata Banerjee outdid her Odisha counterpart, Naveen Patnaik, who had announced 33% seats for women. In 2014, TMC kept 34% seats for women.

“I am happy. While other parties are talking about 33% reservation for women, Trinamool has implemented and raised the bar higher. Today, we are declaring 40% women candidates,” said the CM.

Mamata said BJP was her main opponent as she declared her willingness to campaign against the party in PM Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi, “if invited by Mayawati or Akhilesh”.

Mamata’s move to nominate such a large number of women was praised by Patnaik. Among the 17 women candidates, six are first-timers and 11 have been renominated.

The surprise elements came in the form of nominations to Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan, Bengali film actors. While Chakraborty was nominated from Jadavpur constituency, Jahan will contest from Basirhat, where Trinamool is facing a tough fight from BJP. Chakraborty replaced MP Sugata Bose, who, according to Mamata, had already made himself unavailable for the election this year.

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