The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Tuesday announced the list of candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, out of which about 41% are women. “Other parties should take a look at this. About 41% of our candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. This has triggered a new debate on Women’s reservation across the country. With Biju Patnaik also announcing over 30% tickets for women , the ball is in the court of other parties to match th bar.

West Bengal will vote in seven phases. But with something of a flourish, in just one shot, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee  announced names of all 42 Trinamool Congress candidates in the state. As many as 10 parliamentarians have been dropped. With that out of the way, Mamata Banerjee threatened – as it were — to use the time between phases to go campaigning outside Bengal and her itinerary may include Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi seat.

Mahagathbandhan, or the “grand alliance” of opposition parties, is still key, she believes, to take on the BJP even though she may skip the next meeting of the anti-BJP front on Friday in New Delhi.

The reading of names of candidates was sandwiched between an attack on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Modi babu must go from power, we want to see him out,” Mamata Banerjee said.

“He has somehow managed to frighten everyone. It’s like black magic. Why should we be scared of a political leader? Those who are scared, they will die. I am not scared… I will fight along with all of our friends to defeat Modi,” she added.

The list of the prominent women candidates had several surprises.

Moon Moon Sen, actor and Trinamool lawmaker, has been deployed against BJP’s Babul Supriyo at Asansol. She was the giant killer at Bankura in 2014, defeating CPM veteran Basudev Acharya.

Some new film stars on the list are Nusrat Jahan from Bashirhat. She replaces sitting MP Idris Ali. Mimi Chakraborty, actor, model and fashionista, will stand from Javavpur, the seat that Mamata Banerjee had snatched from the venerable Somnath Chatterjee in 1984

Current Trinamool parliamentarian from Jadavpur, Professor Sugata Bose, apparently did not get the nod from Harvard University where he teaches history, to take time off to contest.

Mahua Maitra, the former JP Morgan finance whiz kid and sitting Trinamool legislator, has also received a ticket. She had quit her job in London to come work in India. She was one of Rahul Gandhi’s laptop warrior who came to Bengal and switched to Trinamool. In 2016, she won handsomely from the remote Assembly seat of Karimpur in Nadia district. She is now Mamata Banerjee’s candidate for Krishnanagar.

“I feel very proud and honoured that Didi (as Mamata Banerjee is known) has given me this responsibility. Krishnanagar is where I started my journey when I moved back from England. It’s like life has come a full circle. I have realized if you want to do something badly, nothing can stop you. You can do it, with a shot of hard