By IANS,
Kolkata: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Tuesday forged an alliance with the Trinamool Congress for the April-May assembly polls in West Bengal. The NCP will field its candidate from Dinhata constituency, the party said.
In another development, Trinamool ally Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist (SUCI-C) declared that it will field 19 candidates – 17 out of them against the Congress, which has already reached a seat-sharing pact with the Trinamool Congress.
“Our party will contest election from Dinhata assembly seat with an alliance with the Trinamool Congress and the Congress,” said Amiyo Sarkar, state president of the NCP.
“We have given Dinhata assembly seat to NCP to contest as they are part of our alliance now. Trinamool will now contest in 226 assembly seats,” said Subrata Bakshi, state president, Trinamool.
Under the deal, Trinamool will contest 226 seats while the Congress will field 65 candidates and the NCP will field one candidate. Trinamool offered two constituencies to the Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist (SUCI-C), which accepted the offer Tuesday.
The SUCI-C later declared that in addition to two seats offered by the Trinamool, it will also field candidates in 17 other seats against the Congress.
“We will field 17 candidates against the Congress. And we will also field our candidates in Jaynagar and Kultuli assembly seat. In total we will field candidates in 19 assembly seats,” said Provas Ghosh, general secretary, SUCI-C.
Ghosh also took a dig at the Trinamool Congress for unilaterally announcing its seats but said that it would support Trinamool in the assembly polls.
“We will support Trinammol and their candidates in this elections because we want to remove this CPI-M led Left Front government in the state,” said Ghosh.
He also expressed his disappointment over the two seats offered to them by the Trinamool.
Aiming to end the 34-year rule of the Left Front in the state, the Trinamool Congress and the Congress Monday announced a seat-sharing pact for the April-May assembly polls.
The six-phase assembly polls will be held in West Bengal April 18 to May 10. The results will be declared May 13.