Amit Malviya, national in-charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) IT cell, on Friday said that TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had already conceded defeat by relinquishing her traditional seat of Bhawanipore.

“Mamata Banerjee, by relinquishing her traditional seat of Bhowanipore, has already conceded defeat, even before the first vote has been cast. Bring it on. Bengal is ready for change!” Malviya tweeted.

Since 1991, Banerjee has won from the South Kolkata Lok Sabha seat six times on a trot and it was only in 2004 that her winning margin was less than one lakh votes. The seat was considered safest for TMC until 2014.

Banerjee on Friday released the list of Trinamool Congress candidates for the upcoming assembly polls for 291 seats with emphasis on youths, minority, women and backward communities. Three candidates of the Bimal Gurung faction of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), an ally of the TMC, will be contesting from the remaining three seats in Darjeeling.

“This time we have stressed on more youths and women candidates. Around 23-24 sitting MLAS have been dropped and there are names of about 50 women, 42 muslims, 79 SC and 17 ST candidates in the list,” Banerjee said. Exuding confidence of returning to power for the third consecutive time, Banerjee termed it as the “easiest” election the TMC has ever faced.

“After we come to power we will create Vidhan Parishad to accomodate senior and experienced leaders. We could not accommodate everybody especially those above the age of 80 years,” she said. “I will be contesting from Nandigram, my party colleague Sovandeb Chattopadhyay will be contesting from Bhawanipore seat,” she said.