Deepa Dasmunsi would contest against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at her Bhawanipore Assembly seat which the Trinamool chief had won in 2011 by over 50,000 votes.
The Congress today fielded former lawmaker Deepa Dasmunsi against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at her Bhawanipore Assembly seat which the Trinamool chief had won in 2011 by over 50,000 votes.
Ms Dasmunsi was named along with 42 other candidates for West Bengal by the Congress high command. Earlier this week, a state Congress leader, Prof Om Prakash Mishra, had offered to fight Ms Banerjee. The state party chief did not dismiss his offer and Prof Misha had even started campaigning. But Congress president Sonia Gandhi wanted Ms Dasmunsi for the job.
An MP from Raiganj in north Bengal till 2014 when she lost to CPM's Mohammed Salim, Ms Dasmunsi said, "This is a war. My opponent is very strong and intelligent. But the condition of West Bengal under her has become so bad, I will do my best to win this seat."
She has been a consistent Mamata Banerjee baiter and believed to be among those state Congress leaders who strongly opposed any alliance with the Trinamool in the Assembly polls.
Speaking at a small meeting of party workers in the constituency this evening, Ms Dasmunshi said, "I feel this place is my home. My husband won his first election from this seat."
She is the wife of Congress leader Priya Ranjan Das Munshi who was elected to Lok Sabha from the Kolkata South seat in 1971 in which Bhawanipore is an Assembly segment.
Bhawanipore, which polls in the 5th phase on April 30, will see a high-profile fight. The BJP has fielded Netaji Subha Chandra Bose's grand-nephew Chandra Bose against Ms Banerjee.