West Bengal elections 2016: Left out with 84 nominees, Congress too named candidates for 11 of the seats

Along with its first list announced on Monday, the Left Front has now declared candidates for a total of 203 seats in the 294-constituency assembly.

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File photo West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

The Left Front Thursday announced the second list of its 84 candidates, which includes 11 seats that its possible alliance partner Congress also intends to contest in the upcoming Assembly polls in the state.

While Left Front chairman Biman Bose said talks are still on and a solution would be worked out, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said his party was “sincere” about a tie-up but is ready for a three-cornered contest if such a situation arises.

“We are announcing our second list of 84 candidates. Out of the 52 new faces, nine are women while 20 others belong to the minority community,” Bose told media persons.

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Pulin Behari Baskey who was earlier announced as the candidate for Nayagram in West Midnapore will now contest from Gopiballavpur constituency in the same district.

Bose also announced two candidates each who will contest the elections on RJD and JD(U) tickets.

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Of the 11 seats that both Left and Congress have announced candidates for, six — Suti, Jangipur, Raghunathgunj, Sagardighi, Burwan and Noada — fall in Murshidabad, Chowdhury’s own district and a Congress stronghold for long. While four are from Birbhum – Hasan, Rampurhat, Nanur and Saithia — another seat is Kanthi Dakshin in East Midnapore.

Asked why such a situation arose, Bose said, “We can’t answer all the questions right now. You have to wait for some more time to get the answers. The district leadership will discuss among themselves. If needed, we will discuss as well. Our target is that there should be no division of anti-TMC votes,” he said.

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Commenting on the Left Front’s announcement, Chowdhury said, “We sincerely wanted to form an alliance giving respect to the people’s desire. Seat-sharing has been decided in consultation. Now if they want to impose something, Congress will not accept it. We are ready for three-cornered fights in those seats,” he firmly said, adding, “There is no lack of sincerity on our part.”

While Bose said their recent decision “will not have any major impact over the electoral understanding we have with Congress”, Chowdhury differed in his assessment, saying “it might have some adverse effect on the attempt to tie-up for a united fight against the Trinamool”.

Along with its first list announced on Monday, the Left Front has now declared candidates for a total of 203 seats in the 294-constituency assembly.

With PTI inputs

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