Kolkata:
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, on Friday, replaced the party candidate for Jorasanko seat in the metropolis, a former BJP leader, though he was initially named in the list of TC nominees for coming West Bengal assembly polls.
"The Trinamool councillor in the Kolkata Municipal Corportation Smita Bakshi will now be the party candidate from Jorasanko in place of Shantilal Jain," Banerjee told reporters tonight.
Jain's name had figured in the list of TC candidates released last week. Dinesh Bajaj, a sitting Trinamool MLA, has not been given nomination from the seat again this time.
Asserting that Jain was changed for not keeping "good health", the Trinamool chief said with Bakshi's candidature, the women nominees of the party for 11 seats in Kolkat now went upto four.
Jain was elected to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation as a BJP councillor in 1985.
Out of the total 294 seats up for grabs, Trinamool Congress would contest 226, its ally Congress 65 and two other allies SUCI two and NCP one.