Kolkata, April 8 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday filed her nomination from her native Assembly constituency of Bhabanipur in South Kolkata.

The list of proposers in her nomination form reflected the “cosmopolitan” nature of Bhabanipur, which is considered a cauldron of people from almost the entire country.

The proposers in her nomination form include Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim’s wife, Ismat Hakim (representing the Muslims), actress-turned-politician and Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Koel Mallick’s husband, Nishpal Singh Rane (representing the Punjabis), local Trinamool Congress block President Bablu Singh (representing the Biharis) and Bhabanipur Education Society representative Miraj Shah (representing the Gujaratis).

The Chief Minister started from her residence at Harish Chatterjee Street in South Kolkata and walked down, leading a procession to submit her nomination at the Alipore Survey Building, which is barely a kilometre away from her residence.

She was accompanied while leading the procession by Firhad Hakim, her brothers Kartik Banerjee and Swapan Banerjee, her sister-in-law Kajari Banerjee, and the local party councillor, Sandip Bakshi, among others.

After filing her nomination, the Chief Minister spoke to the media persons and said that she stays with the people of Bhabanipur round the year. “My entire life has revolved around Bhabanipur. I have stayed in this constituency since my childhood and will continue to stay here forever. My entire life and political career have revolved around Bhabanipur. So today I take the opportunity to thank and bow to the people of Bhabanipur,” the Chief Minister said.

As a precaution, the police cordoned off a part of the road with guardrails to control the crowd while the Chief Minister’s procession was underway, with thousands of people gathering on the side of the road. The Chief Minister led the procession and waved at the people.

This time at Bhabanipur, the Chief Minister is pitted against the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, who is contesting simultaneously from his native Nandigram Assembly Constituency in East Midnapore district, where he is a two-time MLA, first for Trinamool Congress from 2016 to 2021 and then for the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2021 to date.

To recall, in 2021, Adhikari got elected from Nandigram, defeating Mamata Banerjee by a little less than 2,000 votes. Later, she got elected from Bhabanipur in a by-election and retained her chair as the West Bengal Chief Minister for the third consecutive term.

–IANS

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