By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) will contest 85 of the 140 Kerala assembly seats in the upcoming elections, it was announced here Monday.
Left Democratic Front (LDF) convenor Vaikom Viswan made the announcement while telling the reporters that the ruling combine has finalised a seat sharing arrangement for the April 13 elections.
“The CPI-M will contest 85 seats besides backing eight Independents, the CPI (Communist Party of India) 27, Janata Dal-S five, Nationalist Congress Party and the Revolutionary Socialist Party – four each, Kerala Congress (Thomas) and Indian National League – three each, and the Congress-S one,” said Viswan.
The election manifesto of the LDF will be released Tuesday and all parties making up the front have been asked to finalise their lists of candidates by Friday.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is yet to work out seat sharing among its component parties as talks with three parties – the Kerala Congress-Mani, the JSS and the Socialist Janata Democratic – have reached a dead end.