Kolkata, March 16 The Left Front announced its first list of 192 candidates for the West Bengal assembly elections on Monday, with outgoing Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya and CPI(M) central committee member Minakshi Mukherjee among the key nominees.
This is seen as a crucial battle for survival for the CPI(M)-led front in West Bengal, which ruled the state uninterruptedly for 34 years until 2011, but failed to win a single seat in the 2021 assembly polls.
Bhattacharya will contest from the Jadavpur constituency in south Kolkata, while Mukherjee, a prominent figure in the Left Front, will fight from Uttarpara in the Hooghly district.
Mukherjee was fielded in Nandigram in the 2021 elections and came third after BJP's Suvendu Adhikari and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.
The Left Front has also fielded Sabina Yasmin from Kaliganj.
Yasmin's six-year-old daughter, Tamanna, was killed in a crude bomb blast allegedly during the counting of by-elections in June last year, which were won by the TMC.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that the candidates for the remaining seats will be finalized and announced within three to four days.
"The fight this time is against the neo-fascist forces in the country, the autocratic activities in our state, and the hardships faced by the people due to these," Bose said while announcing the 192 nominees at a press conference here.
"We will also be fighting to revive Leftist politics and strengthen Left forces in the state," he added.
The assembly polls will be held in the state on April 23 and 29, and votes will be counted on May 4.
Bhattacharya, whose term in the Upper House of Parliament expires on April 4, was the mayor of Kolkata from 2005 to 2010.
Out of the 192 seats for which candidates were announced, CPI(M) will contest 142, the Forward Bloc (21), RSP (13), CPI (14), RCPI (1), and MCP (1).
Bose stated that women candidates have been fielded in 28 constituencies, and more women will be named for the remaining seats.
Bose said that CPI(ML)-Liberation and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) will field candidates as associates, adding that apart from these, some independents and other important names will also be featured on the Left Front's list.
The ISF, which contested the 2021 assembly polls in a seat-sharing arrangement with the Left Front, won a single seat - Bhangar in South 24 Parganas.