PANCHAYAT ELECTION

Nominations indicate no Left Front unity in Cooch Behar

  

COOCH BEHAR, April 20: Examining the official report prepared after filing of nominations for the three-tier panchayat elections it became clear to all that attaining of a total Left Front unity is still a distant dream in this district. The real picture of the LF unity came out on the last date of filing of nominations, yesterday. It will be even clearer on the last date of withdrawal of nominations on Thursday.

 

As the Forward Bloc and the CPI-M failed to reach to a consensus over sharing of the 29 seats in the Zilla Parishad tier, the FB and the CPI-M were at their liberty to file nominations in the disputed seats. Both the parties had agreed to contest jointly in twenty-seven ZP seats. According to bipartite decision the CPI-M was allotted with 18 seats in the Zilla Parishad tier and the Forward Bloc got nine seats, but they are yet to decide about the fate of remaining two seats claimed by the FB – Bhetaguri-Putimari and Chandamari.

 

Forward Bloc's Ms Manira Chisti had filed her nomination for Bhetaguri-Putimari seat and Mr Gajen Roy for Chandamari seat. District FB secretary Mr Udayan Guha said, they might withdraw their additional candidates if they reach to an understanding with the CPI-M in the seventh bipartite meeting to be held tomorrow. The district CPI-M secretary Mr Chandi Pal is still hopeful about contesting the rural polls under a united Left Front banner with Forward Bloc and other LF partners.

 

Following official report, the CPI-M filed 34 nominations in the 29 ZP seats while the Forward Bloc submitted 15 nominations. Though not allotted by the Left Front, the RSP submitted three nominations at Tufanganj-II, Dinhata-II and Haldibari. In 1,668 seats of 128 Gram Panchayats the CPI-M submitted 2,163 nominations, the FB 1,149 nominations, the CPI 52 and the RSP 47 nominations. In the 353 seats of 12 Panchayat Samitis the CPI-M, the FB, the CPI and the RSP filed 459, 249, 13 and 12 nominations respectively. []