For 150 seats,party shortlists two candidates each

The reason being two-fold. First,in the Lok Sabha elections,most of its sitting MPs lost and second,despite reverses experienced by the party in local polls,its youth wing are doing exceptionally well in college and university elections. “For the past two months,around 320 shadow candidates have been working overtime. The party’s state committee will finalise the candidates from these 360 people,” said a senior CPM leader. “This time,we believe that in most seats,the party will field fresh candidates to beat anti-incumbency. Though the anti-incumbency factor will work against the party,we will try to minimise its effect by nominating fresh candidates,” the leader added.

Sources said that specific instructions were issued from the party’s Alimuddin Street headquarters in September asking the district secretaries to submit their reports of the performance of the shadow candidates who had been told to meet party cadres at the grassroots level and also the villagers to gauge their mood. The reports will be placed at the state committee meeting scheduled for Sunday.

The party officially refused to disclose its plan of fielding young candidates. “We have not reached any final conclusion on this matter. This is too early to say anything on this,” said Md Selim,CPM spokesperson of West Bengal unit.

A section of party leaders,however,are not excited about fielding young candidates. According to them,the fate of the party in the next Assembly elections has been sealed. “The next election cannot be compared to any previous elections,because a strong Opposition is in existence at the grassroots level. So a strategy in replacing the incumbent candidates will not have an impact,” said a party leader. Another leader said the greatest challenge for the party comes from a combined Opposition led by state’s “most popular leader Mamata Banerjee”.