The CPI(M)-led Left Front on Monday released its first list of 192 candidates for the Assembly elections, which has a mix of old and new faces. Among the prominent names in the list were Sabina Yasmin, the mother of a nine-year-old girl who had died in a bomb blast during Kaliganj Assembly bypoll last year; CPI(M) central committee member Minakshi Mukherjee, Students’ Federation of India national general secretary Mayukh Biswas and former Rajya Sabha member Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya among others.
Releasing the list at CPI(M) headquarters at Kolkata’s Alimuddin Street, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that this is the first list and the candidates for the second list will be finalised and released within a few days.
“From Kaliganj CPI(M) candidate is Sabina Yasmin. She is the mother of our martyr child Tamanna,” Bose said at the press conference.
The Class 4 student was killed in a crude bomb explosion near her house in Mulundi village near Palashi under the Kaliganj Assembly constituency of Nadia district on June 23, 2025, hours after the by-elections results to the Assembly seat were announced declaring the Trinamool Congress candidate as the winner.
Tamanna Khatun, was critically injured in the blast and found lying on the verandah of her home in Mulundi village — a known stronghold of the Congress-Left alliance. She died shortly after. Locals alleged that crude bombs had been hurled during a TMC victory procession, purportedly targeting the residence of a CPI(M) supporter.
The other candidates, also the youth faces, who made the cut are Minakshi Mukherjee (Uttarpara seat), Dipshita Dhar (Dumdum Uttar), Kalatan Dasgupta (Panihati), Mayukh Biswas (Dumdum), Sayandip Mitra (Baranagar), Saptarshi Dev (Rajarhat-Newtown), Saikat Giri (Patashpur) and Sayan Banerjee (Maheshtala) among others.
Former Rajya Sabha member and renowned advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya will contest from the CPI (M) stronghold of Jadavpur. Former MLAs of Left Front and senior leaders Manas Mukherjee (Kamarhati), Amjad Hossain (Pandua), Shyamali Pradhan (Nanoor), Ambar Mitra (Engrejbazar), Sujit Chakraborty (Barjora), Farid Mollah (Panchla) and Debalina Hembram (Ranibandh) also made to the list.
While announcing the candidates, Biman Bose said that the Left Front leadership has given priority to the female candidates this time.
Bose said they also gave tickets to Scheduled Caste candidates in general seats.
In the first list, names of senior leaders such as Sujan Chakraborty, Md Salim, Srijan Chakraborty and Shatarup Ghosh were missing. “Salim and Sujan may not make it to the list. Shatarup and Srijan have expressed their willingness to fight the Assembly elections,” said a senior CPI (M) leader without elaborating it.