More women, takeaways from Trinamool’s list of candidates fewer Muslims.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Fri declared the total candidate list of her party for the Assembly elections meet the approaching 2 months. Out of 294 seats, TMC can contest in 291 seats whereas 3 seats are left for its alliance partner Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). Banerjee can contest from Nandigram body, now going away her Bhabanipur seat for party leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay.

In the candidate list, Banerjee has tried to seek out a balance among all sections of society with special specialise in girls candidates. The list includes fifty girls candidates (17% of total candidates), seventy nine SC candidates (27%), forty two Muslim candidates (14%) and seventeen ST candidates (5%). The list conjointly includes actors, singers, doctors, sports personalities, writers, former IPS officers and heavyweight party leaders. Leaders on top of the age of eighty are excluded.

While a hundred and sixty seats have new candidates, there square measure 114 new faces within the list. At an equivalent time, twenty eight sitting MLAs, together with 5 ministers (Amit Mitra, Bacchu Hansda, Ratna Ghosh Kar, Rezzak Muslim and Purnendu Bose), haven't been given tickets.

Here square measure the takeaways from TMC’s candidate list:

Focus on women: In tune with the party election motto ‘Bangla Nijer Meyekei Chay‘ (Bengal desires her own daughter), the TMC has fielded fifty girls candidates now, 5 quite the 2016 Assembly polls. it's evident from this move that the party is attempting to succeed in intent on girls voters to require on the BJP. The party has conjointly given a price ticket to Sujata Khan, the married woman of former TMC leader turned BJP MP Saumitra Khan. At an equivalent time, Ratna Chatterjee, married woman of former state minister turned BJP leader Sovan Chatterjee, has been given price ticket to contest from Behala Purba, Sovan’s body.

Stress on SC/ST communities: now, TMC has fielded AN unexampled seventy nine SC candidates and seventeen ST candidates, a big move the sixty eight SC and sixteen ST candidates it place up within the 2016 polls. province has sixty eight constituencies reserved for SC and sixteen constituencies reserved for STs. The move is aimed toward suit the SC/ST communities, together with the Matuas, a expatriate community that traces its roots to Bangladesh and had shifted loyalties to the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. By giving additional tickets to members of those communities, Mamata Banerjee is attempting to send the message that her party is inclusive .

The TMC has fielded less Muslim candidates now. In 2016, the party had given tickets to fifty seven Muslim candidates, whereas now the amount is right down to forty two. in step with party insiders, this is often an endeavor to shed the Muslim social control tag, a jibe Opposition parties usually use to focus on her. On the opposite hand, this could facilitate stop polarisation of Hindu votes in Opposition’s favour in constituencies with a high share of Hindi-speaking voters.

Interestingly, the TMC has 114 new faces to contest within the polls. additionally, candidates in a hundred and sixty seats are modified. this is often because of the concern of anti-incumbency and to supply higher candidates to the voters. In 2006, the erstwhile Left Front government had modified its candidates in a hundred and fifty seats that helped the party persuade 230 seats within the state. Besides, stress was ordered on transfer in young faces to the party to own a balance between previous and new leaders.

Since coming back to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee has perpetually given tickets to members of the Bengali industry. In most of the occasions earlier, the celebrities have helped TMC win an outsized range of seats. Actors Dev, Moon Moon fractional monetary unit, late actor Tapas Pal, Shatabdi Roy, Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan, Debashree Roy et al. had won election on TMC tickets. now too the party has fielded actors Soham Chakraborty, Sayantika Banerjee, Sayani Ghosh, Gregorian calendar month Maliah, Koushani Banerjee, Kanchan Mallick, director dominion Chakraborty and singer Aditi Munshi to provide an identical result.