NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
The Trinamul Congress announced its candidates for the assembly elections on Wednesday, thus ending speculation on the formation of a mahajot in West Bengal.
Madhabi Mukherjee, a Bengali film actress, will contest against Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
Madhabi, in her first Satyajit Ray film Mahanagar (The Big City), gave a wonderful portrayal of Arati. Contrary to general belief, she was not a discovery of Ray. It was her performance in Mrinal Sen's Baisey Sravan (1959) that prompted Ray to cast her as Arati. She also appeared in Ray's Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964) and Kapurush (The Coward, 1965).
Uncharacteristically for Ray, the collaboration ended with Kapurush, though she continued to work as an actress.
Of the Trinamul's allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party has been allotted 39 seats, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Soren) will contest eight seats, and the Kamatapuri People's Party and Samata Party will contest six seats each.
The party has not decided candidates for seven seats and will not put up candidates against three candidates of the Darjeeling Gorkha National Liberation Front of Subhash Ghisingh.
The Trinamul will not contest in Malda, where senior Congress leader A B A Ghani Khan Choudhary's sister Ruby Noor and Hasanat Ghani Khan Chowdhury are contesting on Congress tickets.
Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee will not contest the assembly elections.
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
