Negotiations among Congress and Left for the January 22 elections of Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) to contest with an informal understanding is still on, as is evident from the nominations filed by both the parties.

As filing of nominations ended on Monday, it was found that unlike Trinamul and the BJP who have fielded their candidates in all 47 seats of the SMC, the Congress has fielded candidates in 35 seats and have left 12 seats vacant while the Left have their candidates in 42 seats.

“The Left has not put candidates in four wards where Congress won in the last civic polls (in 2015). The Congress has skipped a number of seats where the Left is still believed to have a support base, vis-à-vis results of past municipal elections,” pointed out a political observer.

That both Congress and Left want a replay of the “Siliguri model” of tacit understanding was further affirmed by Sankar Malakar, the Darjeeling district Congress chief.

“We have fielded candidates only in those wards where we believe we have a support base. Also, there are still options of some more changes as the last day for withdrawal of nomination is January 6. Our prime target is to stop Trinamul and the BJP from securing a majority in the SMC,” said Malakar.

According to administrative sources, in all 206 candidates have filed their nominations from 47 wards.

“In all, 171 candidates are from the four principal political forces. There are 35 other candidates, among whom are dissidents and Independents. The final scene however, would be clear only on January 6,” said a political analyst.

Trinamul leaders, keen to secure this civic body here for the first time, are yet to make a decision about the dissidents. Four dissident party leaders filed their nominations as Independents from wards 1, 18, 24 and 46.

“Senior leaders have spoken with dissidents and have asked them to withdraw their nominations. If they don’t obey the party’s decision, stern steps will be taken against them,” said a party insider.

In ward 11, there will be a direct face-off between Trinamul and BJP candidates. Uma Goyal of Trinamul is contesting here against Manjushree Paul of BJP. “This is because neither the Congress nor the Left has fielded any candidate here. In 2015, neither of these parties had won the seat. Paul was in Trinamul then (she defected to BJP last year) had won from this ward,” said an observer.