Kolkata: A Trinamool Congress nominee from the metropolis' Entally constituency on Sunday refused to contest from there in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections, claiming party chief Mamata Banerjee had earlier assured him of nomination from Jorasanko.
"I am not contesting from Entally," Tarak Banerjee, a three-time MLA from the now-abolised Kashipur constituency, told reporters, two days after the Trinamool chief announced the first list of candidates for the polls starting April 18.
He said that with Kashipur abolished after delimitation, he had indicated Shyampukur and Jorasanko as preferred constituencies during talks with Mamata Banerjee.
"She told me I would be nominated from Jorasanko. But after the candidate list was published, I found I was nominated from Entally. None of the party leaders discussed the matter with me before making the nomination," he said.
Trinamool Congress has nominated former BJP member Santilal Jain from the Jorasanko seat.
Wondering how he could be nominated from Entally when the party chief herself had assured him nomination from Jorasanko, Banerjee said, "May be there is a bigger leader in Trinamool Congress who can make even the party chief go back on her assurance."
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress sources said that Banerjee was likely to be replaced in the Entally seat by former BJP secretary Col Sabyasachi Bagchi who joined the Trinamool in February last year.
When contacted, Bagchi said, however, that he had not heard anything in this regard from the party.
On Friday, Mamata Banerjee announced a list of 228 candidates, leaving 64 seats for the Congress and two for the SUCI.
Banerjee said she would announce the names of the 64 candidates of her party if the Congress failed to declare its nominees by Monday.
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