Sanjukta Morcha releases candidate list for first two phases of West Bengal polls, Nandigram seat yet to be decided

Sanjukta Morcha, consisting of the Left Front, Congress, and Furfura Sharif's Indian Secular Front (ISF), on Friday announced its candidate list for the first two phases of West Bengal assembly polls at Alimuddin Street.

However, the name of candidates for (210) Nandigram, (227) Pingla, (218) Egra, and (230) Daspur seats are yet to be announced.

Chairing the press conference, the Left Front chairman Biman Bose said, "There are a few seats where final decisions are yet to be taken. The name of the Nandigram candidate is yet to be decided. A list for only two phases has been announced today."

"We will try to finish the remaining list altogether or in another couple of announcements," Bose added.

The ISF has been demanding the Nandigram seat which will be contested by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Interestingly, TMC leader Suvendu Adhikari who joined BJP won the seat last time while in TMC. Later after joining the BJP, the party has challenged Mamata Banerjee to contest from Nandigram.

Party sources in the Left front said that the announcements for the pending three names will be done shortly by the alliance within a couple of days.

Senior Congress leaders, Pradeep Bhattacharya, Abdul Mannan, West Bengal CPM secretary Surya Kanta Mishra Suryakanta Mishra and ISF president Simul Soren, and West Bengal CPM secretary Surya Kanta Mishra attended the joint press conference.

The First and second phases will have 30 Assembly constituencies each.

Brigade ground meeting held on February 28 was instrumental and the alliance of Congress, Left Front and ISF will kick start the joint election campaigning for the first time. Till date, Congress was not participating actively in joint election campaigning.

According to Election Commission data, around 7,32,94,980 voters electors will cast their vote in 1,01,916 polling booths in West Bengal. In 2016, the number of booths were 77,413.

West Bengal is scheduled to see elections on its 294 assembly seats in eight phases starting from March 27 and concluding on April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.

Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has come into force immediately after the announcement of the election dates. The commission has made adequate arrangements to ensure effective implementation of the MCC guidelines.

( With inputs from ANI )