Kolkata, Mar 15 (UNI) The CPI(M) led Left Front today announced its first list
of candidates for 25 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal.
Among the 25 seats, Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist
(CPI-M) will contest in 15 seats, while the partners - the All India Forward
Bloc (AIFB), the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the Communist
Party of India (CPI) will contest in the remaining 10 seats.
The 25 seats include Raiganj and Murshidabad, currently held by the
CPI(M). The party had declared its candidates for these two constituencies
earlier.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose said the Left Front did not field any
candidates in the four Lok Sabha seats won by the Congress in 2014, as
both parties had previously agreed on not having any "mutual contest".
"In some seats, there could be candidates jointly supported by the
Congress and the Left Front," he said.
"Though the AIFB and CPI have fielded candidates in the Purulia and
Basirhat seats, the Congress may provide candidates in those two seats
if they want," Mr Bose added.
Left and Congress have agreed not to field candidates in the seats
where sitting MPs belong to its alliance partner.
Likewise, the Left has fielded its own candidates in Raijanj and
Murshidabad seats, the only two seats of West Bengal won by the
Communist Party in the 2014 General Elections.
Both the parties had fought the 2016 Assembly elections in an alliance
to defeat the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) but the results were
disappointing.
The seven-phased Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal will be held from
April 11 to May 19 in seven phases and the counting of votes will be taken
up on May 23.
UNI BM