Left Front to contest from crucial Nandigram seat with 'full support from Congress & ISF'

The Left Front in West Bengal has decided to contest for the “heavyweight centre” seat of Nandigram with the full support from alliance parties Congress and the Indian Secular Front (ISF).

“The candidate to contest from Nandigram will be from Left front and will be contesting the seat with full support from the alliance (Congress- Indian Secular Front). People will see how this will be a rise above petty politics of ‘tu chor- mai-chor’ and heading toward the fight for justice for all,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammad Salim said.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier announced her decision to contest from Nandigram, where she will be pitched against her ex-confidante Suvendu Adhikari who is contesting on the BJP ticket after switching parties in December last year.

READ | Suvendu Adhikari Affirms 'Nandigram Not A Challenge' After BJP Fields Him Against Mamata

'TMC-BJP two sides of the same coin'

As TMC and BJP gear up for the intensified battle, the Left Front has said that both the parties, with their proclivity for violence, are two sides of the same coin.

“It actually doesn’t make much difference on which Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has selected for its candidates. We have seen how Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s offices were vandalised after the party announced its list of candidates for the upcoming election, the same scene will be on repeat mode with BJP too,” added Salim.

Salim said that all the former Trinamool people have become modern BJP. He said the two parties are doing things after consulting with each other. “Their godown is the same, however, the showroom is different.”

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Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said while a few lists of prospective candidates has been drawn up, consensus on some seats is yet to be arrived at by the alliance partners. The last date for filing nomination for the first phase of the poll is March 9, while it is March 12 for the second phase.

The list of the alliance consisting of the Left Front, Congress, and Furfura Sharif’s Indian Secular Front (ISF) announced their candidate list for the first two phases on Friday at Alimuddin.

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Heavyweight centre seat of Nandigram

In the previous election, Suvendu Adhikari won the Nandigram seat under the TMC. To fight the Nandigram seat Banerjee left her age-long Bhawanipore seat with Sobhandeb Chatterjee. Nandigram, a former stronghold of the Left Front, has immense political importance to both Left and TMC. In 2007, Nandigram’s anti-land acquisition movement led by Mamata Banerjee uprooted 34 years old Left government from Bengal in 2011.

Elections are scheduled to be held in 8 phases in West Bengal starting from March 27 with the final round of voting taking place on April 29. The counting of votes in the state will take place on May 2.

READ | Congress Releases List Of 13 Candidates For West Bengal Assembly Elections

(With inputs from agency)