As many as seven sitting Lok Sabha members were dropped by the Trinamool Congress as it released its list of candidates from West Bengal for the forthcoming polls on Sunday.
These include Sisir Adhikari from the Kanthi constituency and Dibyendu Adhikari from the Tamluk constituency, as they are the father and younger brother, respectively, of the current Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.
The other five dropped MPs are Arjun Singh from Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas, Nusrat Jahan from Basirhat in the same district, Afrin Ali aka Aparupa Poddar from Arambagh in Hooghly district, Mimi Chakraborty from Jadavpur in the South 24 Parganas district, and Chowdhury Mohan Jatua from Mathurapur, also in the same district.
Arjun Singh had been elected on a BJP ticket from Barrackpore in 2019 after quitting the Trinamool before the Lok Sabha polls. However, he joined the ruling party again in 2022. The Trinamool has fielded state Irrigation Minister Partha Bhowmik from Barrackpore this time.
Actress-turned-politician Mimi Chakraborty announced recently that she wants to quit politics to concentrate on her acting career. Jatua, a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer had been ailing for quite some time and his movement is restricted.
Although there were speculations that two more sitting MPs, namely Saugata Roy from Dum Dum in North Parganas and Sudip Bandyopadhyay from Kolkata (North) in Kolkata might be replaced this time, they were re-nominated.
(With inputs from IANS)
