Rift within Left Front on seat sharing continues

Agartala, Jan 10 (UNI) The internal rift between the two Left Front partners - Forward Bloc (FB) and CPI (M) - in Tripura continues with the front refusing to allot more seats to FB.

State FB general secretary Shyamal Roy said here today that the party will place 15 candidates in the forthcoming Assembly polls if the CPI (M) does not allot three seats as per their demand by January 12.

However, the CPI(M) had clarified it earlier that they would not negotiate on seat sharing with the FB and threatened that the Forward Bloc would have to contest for one seat if they wanted to remain in the Front.

The Front has already announced their candidates reserving one seat for the Forward Bloc in the 60-member Assembly's election.

Mr Roy, however, stated that a statewide meeting of the Bloc on January 12 here would prepare the strategy for the coming election and that the party would continue to insist for three constituencies as endorsed by the state council meeting.

''If our demand is not met before the meeting, the party state unit will contest for the 15 seats,'' the general secretary said adding that the party had demanded two more seats but the CPI (M) did not pay any heed to it.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress has started distribution of application form for the aspirants seeking nomination in the election from yesterday and assured to settle down the seat sharing issue with Indigenous National Party of Tripura (INPT) soon.

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