Bengal Assembly Polls 2026: Kajal Sheikh Emerges As New Poster Boy Of Birbhum
Known as the stronghold of TMC strongman Anubrata Mondal, the party has denied tickets to his close associates from Hansan, Suri, and Dubrajpur assembly constituencies.
Published : March 19, 2026 at 3:54 PM IST
By Avishek Dutta Roy
Nanur/Bolpur: The politics of West Bengal's Birbhum is set to have a twist with Kajal Sheikh emerging as the new poster boy, taking up the baton from Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman Anubrata Mondal. Naresh Chandra Bauri — once a close aide of Mondal — made it clear soon after being named a TMC candidate from the Dubrajpur constituency for the Assembly polls 2026.
Meanwhile, Zilla Parishad chairperson Faizul Haque, popularly known as Kajal Sheikh, has been fielded from the Hansan constituency in the same district. Notably, incumbent MLA Bikash Roy Chowdhury, close to Mondal, has been denied a party ticket from the Siuri Assembly constituency.
Political analysts say the moment the TMC announced its list of 291 candidates, the widening rift between Kajal and Kesto, the nickname of Mondal, became even clearer, challenging the long-perceived notion that Birbhum is exclusively 'Anubrata Mondal's stronghold'.
The development has sparked intense speculation within the party ranks. Despite watching live the announcement of candidature from the party office in Bolpur, Mondal refused to take questions from the media. He was scheduled to participate in the traditional wall-writing campaign, but he refrained.
TMC has fielded Naresh Chandra Bauri from Dubrajpur, Ujjal Chatterjee from Siuri, Chandranath Sinha from Bolpur, Bidhan Chandra Majhi from Nanur, Abhijit Sinha (alias Rana) from Labpur, Nilabati Saha from Sainthia, Abhijit Roy from Mayureswar, Ashish Banerjee from Rampurhat, Fayjul Haque (alias Kajal Sheikh) from Hansan, Rajendra Prasad Sinha from Nalhati and Musharraf Hossain from Murarai.
While Chatterjee is the current chairman of the Siuri Municipality, Sinha has won thrice from Bolpur and is a cabinet minister. Five-time Rampurhat MLA Banerjee is the deputy speaker of the assembly, and Bauri is the vice-chairman of Bolpur Municipality. Mondal helped him secure the party ticket in the 2016 Assembly polls and ensured his victory. However, Bauri was denied a ticket in the next Assembly elections (2021), and it went to Professor Debabrata Saha, who was defeated by BJP candidate Anup Saha. In the meantime, Barui became a follower of Kajal Sheikh, known to be a rival of Mondal, and secured the nomination from Dubrajpur.
Immediately after his name figured in the candidature, Bauri headed straight to Sheikh's residence in Papuri village under Nanur block with flowers and sweets. "I am 100% confident of victory. I am merely an instrument. The fact that our general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee and party Supremo Mamata Banerjee have reposed faith in me is sufficient. Kajal Sheikh is the 'New Sun' rising over the district of Birbhum, and I am simply following the path illumined by him. I will not engage in any controversy and will simply say this much: Long live Kajal Sheikh — the beloved 'New Sun' of all of us!" he told reporters.
Bikash Roychowdhury is the two-time incumbent MLA for Suri and is widely known as a close associate of Mondal. He currently serves as a member of the party's district core committee. However, he failed to make it to the candidate list this time, replaced by Chatterjee.
Once considered a bastion of the Left Front, Birbhum started being regarded as Anubrata Mondal's stronghold, and the latest candidate list makes it evident that his close associates have been sidelined this time from Hansan, Suri, and Dubrajpur. Consequently, the political scales appear to have inclined significantly in favour of Sheikh.
"The party has nominated whomever it deemed fit. Our supremo, Mamata Banerjee, and our general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, finalised the candidates. My home is in Nanur. Yet I have been fielded as the candidate from Hansan. Neither do I even properly know any of the local leaders there, nor is there any need to know them. In all 291 seats, there is only one candidate, that is Mamata Banerjee. People cast their votes based solely on the developmental work she has delivered," Sheikh told ETV Bharat.
"I am optimistic about our victory and would like to express my gratitude to our party supremo and to Abhishek Banerjee. I intend to focus intensely on the campaign. If we simply highlight to the public the developmental strides our government has made over the past 15 years, the people will undoubtedly vote for us. Furthermore, it is not for any of us to decide who gets to be a candidate and who does not, as all such decisions are made from Kolkata," Sinha said.
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