The Left Front announced its list of candidates for Calcutta Municipal Corporation polls on Friday, before Trinamul did later in the day, and stuck to its Assembly poll strategy of fielding young faces and women.
The Left Front, however, announced 114 nominees. It did not announce candidates for all 144 seats of CMC as it kept 15-16 seats vacant for parties like Indian Secular Front (ISF), Congress and any other whose stand is against both the BJP and the Trinamul in the state. The list also did not name candidates for 11 seats where one of the Left parties will be contesting, a CPM leader said.
“We did not field candidates in 15-16 wards out of the 144 and decided to support any party capable of defeating the Trinamul and the BJP. For these we have in mind parties like the Congress and the ISF,” said Kallol Majumdar, the CPM’s district committee secretary in Calcutta.
The CMC election is scheduled on December 19.
Sources in the CPM said that the Left Front in selecting candidates for the civic poll stuck to the trend of fielding young faces, a strategy it had adopted in the last Assembly polls. For the CMC polls, 70 per cent of the total contestants are below 50 years. Of the 114 names announced by the Left, 57 are women contestants.
“The ruling party has failed people. The administration is being run on whiplashes. Illegal construction, dilapidated buildings, unscientific approaches to the environment are rampant... the people of Calcutta have faced all such problems. We will go to the people with our campaigns on the needs of people and what they have not received,” said Majumdar.
Along with the list of candidates, the CPM released its manifesto for the CMC election designed on the lines of the Assembly polls.
“The manifesto is very specific to what the Left wants to do and is smart to attract the people. It has highlighted problems the people in Calcutta are facing and promises to solve those if voted to power,” said a senior CPM leader.