By Poll : EC issues notice, Left front declares candidates

Even as the Election Commission issued notification for the four assembly constituencies’ by-poll on June 23 on Monday, opposition Left Front announced its candidates.

Left Front convenor Narayan Kar addressing a press conference on Monday said from the Left Front, the CPM will contest in three seats and one seat has been allocated to the All India Forward Bloc.

While CPM’s Krishna Majumder contest from the 6-Agartala assembly constituency, Forward Bloc leader Raghunath Sarkar will join the fray in 8-Town Bordowali assembly constituency. CPM’s Anjan Das will  contest from CPI-M for 46-Surma (SC) assembly constituency and Shailendra Chandra Nath from the CPI-M for the 57-Jubarajnagar assembly constituency.

During the press conference the CPI-M state secretary Jitendra Chowdhuri demanded the Election Commission to ensure free and fair polls and also demanded to ensure adequate deployment of Central Paramilitary Forces during the election period. 

In the meantime Election Commission on Monday has issued the notification for the four Assembly by-polls in the state. The elections are slated for June 23. Last date for nominations will be on June 6 while entire election process will end on June 28. Scrutiny will be done on the next day and the last date of withdrawal of nomination is June 9. The votes will be counted on June 26.

Even as the notification is issued the political parties are now going whole hog with have hitting the campaign trails with full might. The ruling BJP  remains still tight-lipped about its candidates, though it is almost certain that Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha will join the fray from 8-Bordowali seat. Dr Saha is a Rajya Sabha member and not a state legislator. To remain in the seat of Chief Minister he will have to return from an assembly constituency.

The elections will be a multicornered fight with BJP, Left Front, Congress, Trinamool Congress and some other smaller parties likely to join the fight. Ruling BJP, opposition Left Front and Congress- all are likely to go ahead to the by polls without any alliance, though many suspect that there could some sort of understanding beneath the surface among the opposition parties to combat the ruling BJP.

The by-polls were necessitated after the resignation of three BJP MLAs, and the death of CPI-M legislator Ramendra Chandra Debnath.