Former allrounder-batsman Yusuf Pathan will contest from the Berhampore seat, known to be a bastion of Congress stalwart Adhir Chowdhury. Whereas, Rachana Banerjee will contest from the Hooghly seat. Another former cricketer Kirti Azad will contest from the Burdwan-Durgapur seat.

Five sitting MPs were dropped from the candidates’ list. Former IPS officer Chowdhury Mohan Jatua was dropped as he declined to contest citing his age. Young leader Bapi Halder has been fielded from the Mathurapur seat, which is currently held by Jatua. TMC strongman and Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh, who returned from the BJP last year, has also been dropped. Instead, state minister Partha Bhowmik has been fielded from Singh’s constituency.

Two Bengali movie stars – Mimi Chakraborty and Nussrat Jahan who won from Jadavpur and Basirhat, respectively, in the last elections – were also dropped. However, another actress Sayani Ghosh has been nominated from the Jadavpur seat. Whereas, Muslim leader Haji Nurul has been made the party nominee from Basirhat.

In Arambagh, sitting TMC MP Aparupa Poddar was also dropped and in her place, Mitali Bagh was chosen as the new candidate. In 2019, Poddar had won the election by a slender margin.

Veteran party leader Sougata Roy has been renominated from Dumdum, and so has been Sudip Bandhopadhyay from the Kolkata North constituency.

Announcing the list, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said, “Our party will contest outside West Bengal as well. We will field candidates in Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh also.”