Left Front announces second list for Bengal, leaves Congress party’s 4 winning seats

The Left Front has announced its second list of 13 candidates on Tuesday, leaving four winning seats -- Malda Uttar, Malda Dakshin, Jangipur and Berhampore -- for the Congress. The Congress had won these seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The announcement came a day after the Congress made it clear that it will not be going for an alliance in West Bengal. In the first list, the Left had announced 25 candidates. 

Left Front chairman Biman Bose announced the name of the candidates at a press conference in Kolkata. Interestingly, the Congress in a list announced on Monday evening has fielded candidates from two seats where Left won last time.

According to Trinamool Congress sources, the breakdown augurs well for the party, which would be in a better position to bag the nearly 30 per cent minority votes in the state in the absence of another credible "secular force" in the state.

The CPI(M)-Congress seat-sharing talks failed after the latter accused the Left of insulting it by unilaterally announcing 25 candidates in the state, which has 42 Lok Sabha seats.

The cross currrents of the failure to clinch the Opposition alliance will be felt directly in 15 seats spread across north and south Bengal, a TMC leader said.

The development has brought cheer to the BJP camp, which has emerged as the main challenger of the TMC in the past few years. The party will be in a better position to find favour with a sizeable portion of the refugee voters in the border districts following its efforts to bring in the citizenship bill.