Swapna Barman, India’s Asian Games gold medal-winning heptathlete and Trinamool Congress’s new entrant, visited the Dabgram-Fulbari Assembly constituency on the outskirts of Siliguri on Saturday after she returned from Calcutta.
Her visit to the Assembly segment where the BJP’s Sikha Chatterjee is the MLA, within 24 hours of formally joining Trinamool, has fuelled speculation about her possible candidature from the seat in the Assembly polls.
“It is for the party leadership to decide from which seat I will contest. Our goal is to win every seat in north Bengal where Trinamool candidates will be in the fray,” Barman told the media.
The ace athlete was accompanied by senior Trinamool leader and Siliguri’s mayor Gautam Deb, who expressed delight at Barman’s induction into the party, describing her as the “golden girl” of Indian athletics.
“I have seen her struggle, perseverance and determination to achieve success at the highest level. She won gold at the 2018 Asian Games in heptathlon, one of the toughest events in athletics. An athlete must compete in seven demanding disciplines that test the highest levels of stamina and endurance. Her determination helped her reach the top,” Deb said.
He credited chief minister Mamata Banerjee for inducting accomplished individuals from diverse fields into politics.
“This is perhaps the uniqueness of Mamata Banerjee, who has brought into the party distinguished personalities from sports, academics and culture. Swapna is from the sports fraternity, like cricketers Wriddhiman Saha and Richa Ghosh, who have excelled at the international level from this region. We are confident she will also excel in politics,” he said.
Deb, who won the Dabgram-Fulbari Assembly seat in the 2011 and 2016 Assembly polls, lost it to BJP candidate Sikha Chatterjee by a margin of over 27,000 votes
in 2021.
On Saturday, he expressed confidence about reclaiming the seat in the forthcoming polls.
The constituency comprises 14 of the 47 wards of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation, along with four contiguous panchayats of Jalpaiguri district.
According to Deb, Trinamool secured an absolute majority in these areas, enjoying a cumulative lead of more than 40,000 votes at the last civic and rural polls.
“We have secured a majority in all these 14 wards and also in the Jalpaiguri Zilla Parishad segment within this Assembly constituency. This lead of 40,000 votes will help us win the seat in the ensuing Assembly elections,” he said.