Grand alliance releases partial list of candidates for Bengal polls

Kolkata, March 5 Hours after Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee announced her party's candidates' list for the Assembly elections in West Bengal, the grand alliance comprising Left Front, Congress and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) on Friday announced its the first list of candidates for the first two phases of West Bengal Assembly elections, to be held on March 27 and April 1.

Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that the alliance has arrived upon a seat-sharing agreement to counter both the state's incumbent Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the forthcoming state Assembly polls.

Bose, however, did not disclose the candidates' names for three seats, including the high-profile constituency in East Midnapore's Nandigram, along with Egra and Pingla in West Midnapore, saying the names have not been finalised yet for these three seats.

"The names of Congress candidates in the alliance will be announced by the party high command in Delhi," said senior Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya.

The ISF is also expected to release their candidate list in the next two-three days.

Earlier in the day, Trinamool Congress had released its full list of 291 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections.

West Bengal will go to the polls in eight phases between March 27 and April 29. Counting of votes will take place on May 2.

( With inputs from IANS )