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Bengal

Congress-CPI(M) alliance set for acid test in 3rd phase

The Congress-CPI(M) alliance is all set for acid test in the third phase of election which is scheduled on April 21.

Polling will be held in 62 constituencies. Of these, 22 are in Murshidabad and 17 in Nadia while votes will be held in 16 seats in Burdwan and seven seats in north Kolkata. Around 1.37 crore voters will exercise their franchise. The fate of 418 candidates will be decided in the third phase of election.

In Murshidabad, which is the fiefdom of Adhir Chowdhury, the so called alliance has not worked and in 11 out of 2 seats there will be quadrangular fight. Though leaders of Left Front and Congress have tried to describe the quadrangular fight as “friendly fight” even they know that in election there cannot be anything called friendly fight. It may be recalled that Adhir Chowdhury had already said that Left Front would be blamed if the candidates of alliance fail to do well in the election. 

Though Trinamool Congress did not have any base in Murshidabad, political experts said the party might get two seats including one of Soumik Hossain contesting from Domkol. 

He is pitted against former Animal Resources Development (ARD) minister Anisur Rahaman. Congress has also filed its candidates.  

In Kolkata, the fate of two cabinet ministers will be decided on April 21. They are Sadhan Pandey and Sashi Panja. While Pandey is an eight time MLA, Panja is quite popular in the area and is likely to retain her seat. The eyes will be on two Assembly constituencies in north Kolkata. In Jorasanko, the sitting MLA Smita Bakshi will be contesting against former BJP state president Rahul Sinha. The collapse of Vivekanand Road flyover and the Narada sting will be two major issues.  Though Rahul Sinha is famous for losing election, he is likely to put up a stiff fight as the non-Bengali businessmen are backing him. He may turn the table in his favour. 

The other seat in which people are interested is Chowringhee where veteran Congress leader Somen Mitra is pitted against the sitting Trinamool MLA Nayana Bandopadhyay. BJP has fielded Rites Tewari. 

As a face saving measure Mitra is saying that joining the TMC was the biggest blunder of his life. But this has not gone well with people. He has a pocket vote.  

In Burdwan, there are 16 seats and Rabiranjan Chatterjee, state Technical Education Minister, is contesting from Burdwan South. Chatterjee had defeated the former Industry Minister Nirupam Sen by a handsome margin in 2011 election.
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