Mamata in Barasat on Saturday. (Pradip Sanyal)

Barasat, Jan. 15: Religious icons, poets, novelists, singers, freedom fighters, Matua luminaries — they all feature in Mamata Banerjee’s list of names for upcoming Metro stations.

At Barasat to lay the foundation for the Dum Dum-Barasat Metro project, the railway minister rattled off names such as Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Mother Teresa, Baba Loknath, Jibanananda Das, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi and Matua leader P.R. Thakur.

“They are all famous people and I want pay tribute to them,” Mamata said.

The Trinamul Congress chief said two stations on the upcoming Joka-BBD Bag stretch would be named after Rafi and Kishore, and five stations on the Dum Dum-Barasat line after Abul Kalam Azad, Jibanananda, Baba Loknath, Mother Teresa and P.R. Thakur.

The station at Birati will be named after Baba Loknath as there is a temple to him in the area, Mamata said. The station at Hridaypur will be named after Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay as the author hailed from Bongaon, which is in the same district, North 24-Parganas.

Three stations on the Dakshineswar-Dum Dum stretch will bear the names of Vivekananda, Ramakrishna and Sarada Ma.

A proposed Metro station at New Barrackpore would be named after Mother Teresa. Mamata said she had planned to rename the Park Street station after the nun but the state government “did not give sanction”. She needs no such sanction to name new stations.

Mamata also announced a polytechnic college in Maslandapur, 9km from the Matua Mahasabha headquarters at Thakurnagar. The college will be named after Matua icon Guruchand Thakur. Mamata said the railways would build a stadium in Bongaon and name it after another Matua icon, Harichand Thakur.

Trinamul has been wooing the 1.2 crore Matuas in the state with an eye on the Assembly polls.