LF likely to release its candidates'' list in mid-March

Kolkata, Feb 16 (PTI)(PTI) West Bengal''s ruling LeftFront is likely to release in mid-March, its list ofcandidates for the upcoming election to the 294-member stateAssembly, a senior Left Front leader said today.

"Efforts are on to release the list of Left Frontcandidates by March 15," state General Secretary to ForwardBloc Ashok Ghosh told PTI.

With Trinamool Congress emerging as a powerful force inthis election, which is likely to start from mid-April,Front''s junior partners are out for a bigger slice of seats.

While CPI, which contested 13 seats in the 2006 polls,wants at least two additional seats, RSP is pressing for 26seats as against last time, when it was 23.

Apparently referring to the CPI(M) which gets a lion''sshare of the 294 seats, RSP leader Manoj Bhattacherjee said,"The demand for additional seats is not to be seen from thenumerical point of view (on the basis of the strength of thepartners).

Rather, larger involvement of the partners for the bestinterests of the Left movement in the days to come has to berecognised."

He argued that RSP would ask for three new seats fromthe CPI(M), since two seats - Dhakuria and Burtola in Kolkatafrom where it contested earlier were abolished followingdelimitation.

The new seats are Kasba in Kolkata, Rejinagar inMurshidabad district and Malatipur in Malda district.

Bhattacherjee, however, cautioned, "there should not beany "breaking or sore point in the unity of the Left Frontover seat-sharing." PTI PKC PR