Bengal: Left announces first candidate list for Lok Sabha polls

The first list consists of 25 candidates' names.

The Left is fighting the upcoming polls in an alliance with Congress in West Bengal. However, a rift occurred between the two parties over Purulia and Basirhat seats as both the parties reportedly want to contest from the respectively constituencies.

The Left has fielded its candidates in both the seats. All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) candidate Bir Singh Mahato and CPI's Pallab Sengupta will fight the elections from Purulia and Basirhat seats respectively.

However, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said the Congress is free to field its own candidates in Purulia and Basirhat if they feel.

Left and Congress have agreed not to field candidates in the seats where sitting MPs belong to its alliance partner.

Likewise, the Left has fielded its own candidates in Raijanj and Murshidabad seats, the only two seats of West Bengal won by the Communist Party in the 2014 General Elections.

Congress had won four seats in the last parliamentary polls.

Both the parties had fought the 2016 Assembly elections in an alliance to defeat the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) but the results were disappointing.

In the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Left is eyeing on to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre and TMC in the eastern state.

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