TMC announces candidates for Sikkim and A&N LS seats

Trinamool Congress today nominated former MP Nakul Das Rai as its candidate for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Sikkim and gave the party ticket to Anita Bhakta Mondal for the Andaman and Nicobar seat.

The party also changed the constituency for former Bollywood actor Biswajit from South Delhi to New Delhi.

Trinamool Congress, in its bid to spread outside West Bengal and a couple of other states where it has miniscule presence, announced candidates for the first time in neighbouring Sikkim, putting up former Lok Sabha MP Nakul Das Rai.

Rai is a former Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) MP from Sikkim and was expelled from the party after he had participated in a fast at Gangtok to show solidarity with Anna Hazare's anti-graft movement.

The party nominated Anita Bhakta (Mondal) for the Andaman and Nicobar seat, which was held by her father Manoranjan Bhakta for eight terms, Trinamool Congress all India general secretary Mukul Roy announced here.

BJP had wrested the seat from Congress in the 2009 general elections.

The TMC candidate for Ranaghat seat in West Bengal Saugata Burman, who has suffered a major accident, was replaced by Kalyani University professor Tapas Mondal, Roy said.