Desperate to win back their fast-waning minority vote base and eager to project cleaner faces in the elections, the West Bengal Marxists on Wednesday released a surprise list of candidates stuffed with new faces and minority names for the coming lok Sabha elections.
Out of 42 candidates, 26 are new faces, State left Front chairman Biman Bose said adding there were 13 candidates from the minority community apart from six women nominees. Out of them former MP Suhasini Ali has been fielded from Barackpore and will contest against former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi.
“We have not only tried to give representation to the minorities and the women but also an impressive number of SC/ST candidates have been fielded,” Bose said adding there were more number of such candidates than was mandatory for the Front to field.
Curiously the party has ignored controversial faces like former Tamluk MP laxman Seth who is seen as the main architect behind Nandigram mess. Apart from Seth former Barrackpore MP Torit Topdar has also been ignored.
In a bid to project a people-friendly face the party has fielded a healthy list of practicing doctors about 7 in number. The left list was announced barely an hour after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared hers.
Former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had been insisting on “purging” the party by introducing cleaner faces. The Wednesday’s list was one step in that direction, insiders said wondering however whether throwing out laxman Seth would have adverse impact on the party’s prospects in East Midnapore.
Questioning the “bad politics behind dropping of laxman Seth’s name” a grumbling state committee member said “it amounts to contradicting the CBI report on Nandigram firing that almost gave the left Front a clean chit.”
Seth still has a massive following in East Midnapore and had good chances in a four-cornered contest he said. Apart from the new faces left had fielded veteran leaders and former State Ministers like Dr Asim Dasgupta, Murtaza Hussein and Debesh Das.