The Bloc’s state chief Ashok Ghosh released a separate manifesto for the polls on Thursday, despite an existent Left Front manifesto which was released by the Front chairman Biman Bose earlier.

Ghosh said that the number of “extra” candidates might go up after the withdrawal of nominations for the third phase which is scheduled for April 29.

The Bloc is looking forward to field their candidates in around 5,200 seats, whearas in the 2003 polls the party had contested 4,000 seats.

Criticising the functioning of the panchayats in the state, Ghosh said, “Job schemes, Indira Awaas Yojna and other rural schemes should focus on the poor.”

Bloc had earlier organised a state-wide protest against the state government for its failure to implement these schemes.

Among Bloc’s 5,200 candidates 1,100 are from Cooch Behar only, followed by Purulia where the Bloc has a history of rivalry with the CPM and has fielded 750 candidates in the three-tier polls.

Sources in Forward Bloc said that the so-called Left Front adjustment formula did not work in areas like Cooch Behar.

In the wake of the CPM’s “recapture” of Nandigram in November 2007, the Bloc had announced that it would contest the panchayat polls on its own.

Barely six months after, however, it changed its decision.