Notification for four West Bengal seats Wednesday

The official process for the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal begins Wednesday when the Election Commission is scheduled to issue the notification for four seats in the northern part of the state.

The notification would set the ball rolling for the filing of nominations, which ends March 26. The scrutiny of nominations would be done March 27, while March 29 is the last day for withdrawal of candidature.

The polls to the Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar constituencies would be held April 17.

Darjeeling constituency has been drawing much attention after the state's ruling Trinamool Congress decided to field former Indian soccer skipper Bhaichung Bhutia.

But in a major twist, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha - which commands a strong base in the three hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseyong - announced it would not back Bhutia, accusing him of being an outsider and the Trinamool of announcing his candidature unilaterally.

The GJM has since tied up with the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has named Surinder Singh Ahluwalia as its nominee from Darjeeling.

The tempers have been rising in Darjeeling since then, with the GJM and the Trinamool engaged in verbal duels.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist has named Saman Pathak, while Sujoy would be the Congress candidate for the seat.

BJP's Jaswant Singh had won the seat in 2009 with the GJM's support. The Left Front had won all the other three seats where the notification would be issued on the morrow.