Left Front to refrain from contesting in 17 KMC wards to aid Congress and AISF

“If the Left Front fields its own candidates in these wards it would mean the division in the anti-BJP and anti- Trinamool Congress votes. So the Left Front has decided to contest from 127 wards and set aside 17 wards for other political parties, which have a stronger organizational base in these wards than us. These other parties include Congress and ISF,” said CPM leader.

Kolkata::After the number of MLAs in West Bengalassembly after the 2021 assembly polls got reduced to zero, officially the Left Front in West Bengal as well as the CPI(M)’s centralleadership announced that the alliance with Congress and Abbas Siddique-floated Indian Secular Front (ISF) has ended with the end of the polls.

However, it seems to have a soft corner for grand old party. On Friday, the Left Front’s Kolkata district committee announced the candidates for the forthcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) polls, to the surprise of many it was seen that the front leadership had decided to set aside 17 out of 144 wards under KMC for Congress and ISF.

While announcing the candidates, the CPI(M)’s Kolkata district committee secretary and the convener of Left Front’s Kolkata district committee, Kallol Majumdar gave his explanation on why the Left Front has decided to set aside these 17 seats for Congress and ISF.

“If the Left Front fields its own candidates in these wards it would mean division in the anti-BJP and anti- Trinamool Congress votes. So the Left Front has decided to contest from 127 wards and set aside 17 wards for other political parties, which have a stronger organizational base in these wards than us. These other parties include Congress and ISF,” he said.

According to him, leaving any ground for BJP and TMC in municipal polls is completely ruled out.

Patting his back for announcing the candidate list before Trinamool Congress, Majumdar said 58 candidates this time are women and 18 are from the minority community. “Almost 50 per cent of the candidates are below the age of 50. This time the number of first-time candidates are higher than before,” he said.