CPM confident of winning West Bengal polls
March 26th, 2011 - 10:05 pm ICT by ANIKolkata, Mar 26(ANI): Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) leader Gautam Deb has said that the alliance between Trinamool Congress and the Congress party would not affect his party’s performance in the forthcoming provincial polls in West Bengal.
Staging a massive road show campaign in his constituency Dum Dum, a confident Deb said that the CPM’s votebank was far bigger than that of the TMC-Congress alliance.
“The Congress and Trinamool, they have a votebank, but fortunately that is less than us. So how can they make sure our defeat? They cannot,” Deb said.
Facing stiff opposition from rival parties, the CPM has decided to field fresh faces in the polls, reaching out to the youth votebank by infusing young blood into politics.
As many as 150 of the party’s 294 candidates are new faces, while nine sitting ministers of the provincial government, including Manab Mukherjee, Partha De, Bankim Ghosh and Nandagopal Bhattacharya, have been dropped from the list.
As per their seat-sharing arrangements, the CPM will contest 210 seats, Forward Bloc will field 34 candidates, Revolutionary Socialist Party will fight on 23 seats while the Communist Party of India would support 12 candidates in the upcoming elections.
Meanwhile, divulging details on the issues that would decide the outcome of the polls, Deb said that boosting employment and promoting agriculture were the main agenda of the CPM.
“To ensure that the Public Distribution System (PDS) is streamlined, to ensure that the tribals, the Muslims, the Scheduled Caste people get better benefits in the coming days, to ensure that the unemployed youth get employment, to ensure that West Bengal becomes the rice bowl in our country, not only to feed its own people but the country people, at least 25 percent increase in rice production in Bengal, all these things are the issues,” Deb said.
The state will have elections in six phases. The first phase of voting will take place on April 18, second phase on April 23, third phase on April 27, fourth phase on May 3, fifth phase on May 7 and sixth phase on May 10.
The CPM-led Left Front coalition has been in power in West Bengal for more than three decades, making it the world’s longest ruling democratically elected government. (ANI)
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