Mamata Banerjee files nomination papers

Kolkata, Apr 8: Aiming to lead Trinamool Congress to power for a second successive tenure, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today filed her nomination papers for the assembly elections from prestigious Bhabanipur constituency in south Kolkata.

Banerjee's nearest rival in the constituency Deepa Dasmunshi, Congress candidate and wife of ailing Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, and BJP candidate Chandra Kumar Bose, nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, also filed their nominations for Bhabanipore.

Accompanied by a large number of supporters, the West Bengal Chief Minister came in a rally from Hazra to Alipore where she submitted her papers at the District Election Office.

TMC workers, who assembled there carrying party flags, shouted slogans in support of the party supremo causing a traffic jam for sometime. A large posse of policemen was posted in the area to maintain security and to control crowd.

Deepa Dasmunshi and Chandra Kumar Bose were also accompanied by a large number of supporters of their respective parties as they came to file their papers at Alipore.

Dasmunshi alleged that some TMC workers tried to provoke her supporters and said she requested the police to remove the TMC workers to avoid any untoward incident.

At the gate of the building, Dasmunshi's supporters alleged that they were not allowed by police to go inside along with their leader. Lok Janshakti Party fielded transgender Bobby Halder from this high-profile constituency in the metropolis.

Banerjee had won the Bhabanipur seat in an Assembly by-election in 2011 by a comfortable margin of 54,213 votes defeating Left Front candidate Nandini Mukhopadhyay. Polling in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency is scheduled for April 30 in the fifth phase.

PTI