CPM waits for district feedback

KOLKATA: With a possible tie-up between Trinamool Congress and Congress looming large over the Lok Sabha seats considered marginal by CPM, party mandarins at Alimuddin Street are waiting for a concrete feedback from district leaders. This will be discussed at the CPM state committee meeting on Tuesday, before they declare the list of candidates in the first week of March.
CPM state secretary Biman Bose is keeping his options open for candidates in as many as nine Lok Sabha seats.They include two seats in Nadia Uttar Ranaghat and Dakshin Ranaghat the Birbhum Lok Sabha seat, all the three seats in Hooghly Arambag, Serampore and Hooghly two seats in Howrah Howrah and Uluberia and the new Dakshin Malda seat in Malda.
Asim Bala is the likely candidate from Bongaon, minister Anisur Rahaman from Murshidabad and minister Sailen Sarkar from Uttar Malda. And in all probability, Basudeb Burman won't contest from Mathurapur in South 24-Parganas. The South 24-Parganas CPM will instead field a local candidate.
Sitting MPs, Tarit Topdar, Amitava Nandy, Sujan Chakrabarty, Samik Lahiri and Bansa Gopal Chowdhury will contest from their home constituencies though some of them have undergone a sea change after delimitation. MP Ram Chandra Dom is all set to contest from Somnath Chatterjee's Bolpur, that is a reserved seat this time.
According to party leaders, CPM is not in a position to drop Lakshman Seth from the electoral battle, because of organizational considerations, though the CPM politburo was initially averse to his candidature. A sizeable section of the CPM state secretariat maintains that the party cannot face the elections in East Midnapore without Seth, though chances of winning the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat and the neighbouring Contai seat seem difficult.
Mohammed Salim is the CPM nominee from Kolkata North and Rabin Deb from Kolkata South.
The district considerations apart, Alimuddin Street is not very keen on coming out with the list before the election notification is made by the end of February or early March. Meanwhile, party leaders will closely follow the Assembly bypoll in Bishnupur West in South 24-Parganas, where 12 of the 13 gram panchayats went with Trinamool in the last panchayat election. The results of this by-election can be an indicator of the rural vote-bank in South 24-Parganas, where CPM is now at the receiving end.