No Left-Congress alliance for Assembly byelections in West Bengal

This comes after the Congress appointed Subhankar Sarkar as the president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee in September, replacing Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury

The Congress and the Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), have fielded separate candidates for the byelections in six Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, indicating that the long-standing electoral understanding between the two in the State may have come to a halt.

This comes after the Congress appointed Subhankar Sarkar as the president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee in September, replacing Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Mr. Chowdhury was seen as the force behind the Left-Congress alliance in the State since 2016.

The six constituencies going to the polls on November 13 are Naihati, Haroa, Midnapore, Sitai (SC), Madarihat (ST), and Taldangra. The Trinamool Congress had won five of the seats in the 2021 Assembly election, while the BJP won Madarihat in north Bengal. The byelections were necessitated after the MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year.

The Trinamool Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Left Front, and the Congress have fielded candidates for the byelections, setting the stage for a four-cornered contest.

The Congress announced its candidates for the six seats on Tuesday, a day after the Left Front announced candidates for five seats. The Left Front is yet to announce its candidate for the Haroa Assembly constituency.

The Congress candidates are Paresh Nath Sarkar (Naihati), Habib Reza Chowdhury (Haroa), Bikash Champro Mary (Madarihat), Shyamal Kumar Ghosh (Medinipur), Tusharkanti Sannigrahi (Taldangra), and Harihar Roy Singha (Sitai). 

CPI(ML) candidate

Interestingly, the Left Front has fielded Debajyoti Mazumder as its candidate from Naihati. Mr. Mazumder is from the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, which was originally not a part of the Left Front in West Bengal. A section of the Left leadership has been calling for a larger Left unity in the State.

The other Left Front nominees are Arun Kumar Barma of the Forward Block from Sitai, Padam Oraon of the Revolutionary Socialist Party from Madarihat, Mani Kuntal Khamrui of the CPI for Medinipur, and Debkanti Mahanti from the CPI(M) for Taldangra.

Published - October 23, 2024 10:36 pm IST