West Bengal polls: Left drops nine ministers

Includes 149 new faces in the list of 292 candidates

West Bengal’s ruling Left Front today released a list of 292 candidates for the coming Assembly polls, even as it dropped nine ministers. The list, announced in a press conference by Front Chairman Biman Bose, included 149 new faces, 15 more than last time.

For the first time, the Front gave more than 50 per cent of the seats to new faces.

“We try to follow a formula of bringing in one new face for every two old candidates,” Bose told reporters after releasing the list.

Another senior CPI(M) leader, who did not want to be named, quipped, “With the infusion of fresh blood we tried to give us a new look. We hope the voters will appreciate this.”

 

Of the 292, the CPI(M) will field 209, Forward Bloc 34, RSP 23, CPI 14, WBSP 5, MFB and DSP 2 each, and RJD, RCPI and Biplobi Bangla Congress one each. The state has a 294-member Assembly. The six-phase polls begin on April 18 and will end on May 10.

The nine ministers who have been denied tickets this time are Manab Mukherjee, Partha Dey, Bankim Ghosh, Benoy Krishan Biswas, Rabindranth Hembram,

Yogesh Chandra Barman and Tapan Roy of the CPI(M), Rabin Ghosh of FB, and Nandogopal Bhattacharjee of the CPI.

In 2006 too, the Front had dropped nine ministers from its candidates’ list.

But key Left Front figures including Nirupam Sen, Asim Dasgupta and Ashok Bhattacharjee are contesting from their own constituencies. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will also contest from Jadavpur.

Three ministers — CPI(M)’s Goutam Deb, RSP’s Khsiti Goswami and WBSP’s Kiranmoy Nanda — have been shifted to new constituencies. Deb and Goswami’s present constituencies, Hasnabad and Dhakuria, have been abolished owing to delimitation, but Nanda had left his constituency in East Midnapore to contest from Raigunj in North Bengal as he found the growing influence of the Trinamool Congress in his area made the seat unsafe for him. Goswami has decided to contest from Alipurduar in North Bengal, while Deb has been offered to contest from Dum Dum.

The list of the Opposition — the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine — is likely to be announced next week, if everything goes well with the seat-sharing talk between the two.

Assam polls
According to PTI, the ruling Congress in Assam today declared its first list of candidates for 118 out of the 126 Assembly constituencies going to polls in two phases in April 4 and 11.