2.

Left Front ends Congress' wait in Bengal, announces first list of 25 candidates; reserves
17 for grand old party in Lok Sabha polls

The CPI(M)-led Left Front announced its first list of candidates for 25 seats in West Bengal for
the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on Friday, leaving 17 constituencies for the Congress.
The list has four women and five Muslim candidates. The Left Front has nominated former Kolkata
mayor and CPI(M) leader Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya from the Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency.

He will be pitted against Trinamool Congress's (TMC) Mimi Chakraborty, a popular film actress.
The state Congress leadership, which was keen on contesting the Purulia and Barasat seats, said
everyone should be flexible in an adjustment.

For the first time, the Left Front has opted for a seat-sharing deal with its once arch rival, the
Congress, for the Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Earlier in 2016, against the wishes of its Left allies, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had
entered into a seat-sharing deal with the Congress for the state Assembly polls. Struck in a hurried
manner, the deal had failed to evoke mass support.

In a press statement, West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Bose said the 25 Lok Sabha seats
included Raiganj and Murshidabad, for which the candidates were declared earlier. The state
CPI(M) leadership is in a fix over choosing between the Congress and its Left Front allies, who
are not willing to leave the Purulia and Barasat seats, which they have been contesting for decades.

The Congress is keen on contesting these two seats, leading to an impasse in the seat-sharing talks.

Bose said it was decided at the Left Front meeting that the CPI and the Forward Bloc would contest

Purulia and Barasat respectively, but if the Congress wanted to field its candidates in these two

seats, they could go ahead.

Reacting to the development, state Congress chief Somen Mitra said they would discuss the matter

within the party and announce their list very soon.

The CPI(M) and the Congress have agreed on a seat-sharing adjustment to stop the march of the

ruling TMC and a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengal. The Left Front has nominated

Mohammed Salim and Badaruddoza Khan from Raiganj and Murshidabad respectively. Both of

them had won these seats in 2014. In Diamond Harbour, senior CPI(M) leader Fuad Halim will be

pitted against sitting TMC MP and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

In the Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat, the Left Front has fielded CPI(M) leader Nepaldeb Bhattacharya

against sitting TMC MP Sougata Roy. The Left Front has also nominated Rejaul Karim, a medical

practitioner, from the Birbhum seat. A doctor at a government hospital, Karim was suspended by

the TMC government for participating in a rally against it in November last year.