By IANS
Agartala : The ruling Left Front in Tripura Friday suffered a major setback ahead of the Feb 23 assembly elections with the Forward Bloc (FB) announcing the names of 15 candidates to contest against its dominant partner, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
The Forward Bloc, one of the four constituents of the Left Front, declared its decision to contest the crucial polls in alliance with the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML).
“Since 1977, the four left parties led by CPI-M had been jointly fighting the elections against the Congress. Unfortunately this is the first time the FB was forced to field candidates against the leading partner to protest against its rigid attitude,” said Shyamal Roy, general secretary of the FB state unit.
Of the 15 seats, FB would field candidates in 13 and the CPI-ML in two seats. Two of the FB nominees would be women.
Roy said the central and state leaders of the two parties, including CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat and his FB counterpart Debabrata Biswas, held a series of inconclusive meetings to settle the seat-sharing dispute.
The CPI-M led Left Front has allotted only one seat to the FB although the ally was demanding three seats in the 60-member house.
According to the schedule, the last date for filing of nomination is Feb 6 and the scrutiny of nomination would take place the next day. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is Feb 9.
After the election notification Wednesday, more than 100 candidates, including Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, have filed their nominations in different assembly constituencies.
Dissident Congress candidates and their supporters have continued their protest in different parts of the state after the All India Congress Committee (AICC) announced the party nominees Tuesday.
Rebel candidates in different parts of the state assaulted Congress official nominees and locked party offices. The AICC has announced the first list of 43 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Tripura. The party left 11 seats for its ally, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT).
Among the Congress nominees, there are two former chief ministers — Samir Ranjan Burman and Sudhir Ranjan Majumder, several former ministers and 12 legislators besides three new faces. There are three women nominees.