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| Left faces crucial test in 10 bypolls |
| Press Trust Of India / Kolkata Nov 07, 2009, 00:28 IST |
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The CPI(M)-led ruling Left Front in West Bengal that has tasted successive defeats in elections to the panchayat and the Lok Sabha are in for another tough electoral battle as they brace up for bypolls to 10 assembly constituencies tomorrow.
Among the Front constituents, the CPI-M has fielded candidates in five seats, the CPI in two, the Forward Bloc, RSP and the DSP in one each.
The CPI(M) will face Trinamool Congress in four seats-- Alipur, Rajgunj, Bongaon and Belgachia East-- and will fight the latter’s ally Congress in Sujapur.
The Contai South and Serampore seats will be contested by the CPI and the Trinamool Congress while the Forward Bloc will fight the Congress in Goalpokhar.
In Kalchini, the RSP will lock horns withe the Congress while at Egra, there will be a fight between the DSP and the Trinamool Congress.
Forty companies of the Central forces besides the police will be deployed to ensure peaceful, free and fair election, Chief Electoral Officer Debasish Sen said.
Over 19 lakh voters will cast their ballots in 2407 booths to elect their representatives from among 49 candidates.
In the face of the crucial test, the CPI(M) which had a poor showing in the Lok Sabha as well as successive assembly by-polls and civic elections, fell back on the services of its patriarch Jyoti Basu.
Basu had issued a statement on Sunday appealing to Congress voters to support the Left in the by-election saying the state had slipped into a dangerous situation since the Lok Sabha poll.
The increasing activities by the Naxalites and political clashes between the CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress emerged as the main issues during the campaign with the ruling party accusing the Opposition of having links with the Naxalites.
The Trinamool Congress, on the other hand, has described the CPI(M) and the Naxalites as two sides of the same coin and accused the Left Front government of unleashing terror.
Except for Belgachia East, the other nine seats fell vacant after sitting legislators were elected to the Lok Sabha. By-poll to Belgachia East was necessitated due to the death of former transport minister Subhas Chakraborty. The CPI(M) has worked hard to retain the seat, which was represented by Chakraborty from 1977 till his death in August this year.
The Marxist party has fielded Chakraborty’s widow Ramala Chakraborty and is banking heavily on sympathy votes with actor Mithun Chakraborty and CPI(M) politburo member Biman Bose campaigning for her.
On the other hand, the Trinamool Congress has fielded Sujit Bose, an erstwhile follower of Chakraborty. It had won the Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat of which Belgachia is an assembly segment.
The Alipur seat in the metropolis is a part of Railway minister Mamata Banerjee’s Kolkata South Lok Sabha constituency and is considered a safe seat for the party.
The CPI(M) has put up a young candidate Kaustav Chattopadhyay, state secretary of party’s students wing SFI against Firhad Hakim, a councillor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
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