Assembly bypolls: Seat-sharing pact between the Left Front and Congress hit a rocky patch
Kolkata: The seat-sharing pact between the Left Front and Congress for the upcoming by-elections in four Assembly seats in Bengal has, apparently, hit a rocky patch.
On Saturday, Congress stirred the pot by hinting that they might field a candidate in the Bagdah Assembly by-election, despite the Forward Bloc having already unveiled its contender for the seat the previous day.
The Left Front left the Raiganj Assembly seat for Congress.
According to sources, Congress may field Mahit Sengupta as its candidate in Raiganj while Prabir Kirtaniya may become the candidate in Bagdah.
The grand old party is not ready to part with the Bagdah seat and give it to the Left Front.
It was learnt on Friday that the Left is fielding candidates in all three seats except Raiganj. It was decided that CPI(M) will fight the seats Maniktala and Ranaghat South while Forward Block will fight the Bagda seat.
In the Maniktala seat, CPI(M) has fielded Rajib Majumder who is the Kolkata Zilla Committee member. In Ranaghat South, the candidate is a young face, Arindam Biswas.
In the Bagdah seat, Forward Block has fielded Gouaditya Biswas. CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim had informed that the Raiganj seat was spared for Congress after a meeting with the latter.
However, the seat-sharing agreement seemed not to be working as the Congress was eager to field candidates in Bagdah.
The Bagdah seat was given to Congress to fight both in 2016 and 2021 Assembly elections.
Four Assembly seats in Bengal are set to go for bypolls on July 10, the Left and the Congress, which fared poorly in the state in this Lok Sabha elections, have once again decided to go for a seat-sharing arrangement for fielding candidates.
The Election Commission (EC) has decided to conduct bypolls in four seats in Bengal which are Ranaghat South in Nadia, Bagdah in North 24-Parganas, Maniktala in Kolkata and Raiganj in North Dinajpur. The last date for filing of nominations in these four seats is June 21 and the last date for nomination withdrawal is June 26.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday also announced the candidates for the July 10 by-elections.
The party, through a press release, announced the names of the candidates.
Krishna Kalyani will contest from Raiganj, Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat-Dakshin, Supti Pande from Manicktala and Madhuparna Thakur from Bagdah.
Madhuparna Thakur, the daughter of the ruling party’s Rajya Sabha member Mamata Bala Thakur was a surprise choice for the Bagda Assembly Constituency, where the bypoll was necessitated because the erstwhile BJP MLA Biswajit Das resigned before the Lok Sabha polls. Das was fielded as a candidate by the Trinamool from Bangaon Lok Sabha. But he was defeated.
