The Left Front has once again fielded youth leader Srijib Biswas against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the latter’s home turf in Bhabanipur in Kolkata. The young advocate had contested against the TMC supremo in 2021 Bhabanipur Assembly bypoll and lost.
Biswas’s name featured in the Left Front’s second list, comprising 32 candidates, released on Thursday. Out of the 32 candidates, 29 are from the CPI(M), two from CPI, and one from the RSP. The Front had announced names of 192 candidates in the first list on Monday.
The key nominees in the second list included CPI’s Shanti Giri from Nandigram and former MP and CPI(M) leader Dr Pulin Behari Baskey from Nayagram. Giri will fight against BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and Pabitra Kar of TMC in Nandigram.
The second list also included a few surprise entries, including Afrin Begum Shilpi and Partha Pratim Biswas. Afrin, the young research scholar from Jadavpur University has been fielded from Ballygunj constituency.
On the other hand, retired professor of Jadavpur University, Partha Pratim Biswas has been fielded in Tollygunj against heavyweight TMC candidate and cabinet minister Aroop Biswas. Reacting to her selection, 29-year-old Afrin said, “When I was in SFI, I was fighting for the rights of the research scholars in Jadavpur university. Now, my fight will change and it will be for the rights of the people.”
Afrin was first seen with Md Salim and Samik Lahiri in the all party delegation of CPI(M).
The other candidates whose names were announced in the second list include Meenakshi Mukherjee (Uttarpara), Dipsita Dhar (Dum Dum North), Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya (Jadavpur), Sreejeev Biswas (Bhavanipur), Monirul Islam (Metiaburuj) and Apoorba Pramanik (Jayanagar (SC)).
During the announcement of the candidate list, CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim described the current judicial review of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as the “initial victory”, and asserted that the Left leaders will not rest till every genuine voter figures on the list before the two-phase polls. “We have an initial victory when CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal and other senior administrative and police officials attended a SIR review meeting at Calcutta High Court, and the pace of disposal of pending voter-related claims and objections was discussed,” he said.