Jamiat had played a major role in coordinating minorities in Nandigram along with the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (bupc), led by the Trinamool Congress that was formed to resist land acquisition in the troubled town last year.

Chowdhury alleged that due to the Trinamool leadership’s domination in the BUPC, it has reduced Jamiat’s role in local politics. The PDCI and its allies in the Democratic Front have hence decided to field their candidates. “We will put up around 50 candidates in Block I & II of Nandigram,” Chowdhury, chairman of the West Bengal Democratic Front, said today.

At Nandigram, the place that brought anti-CPM factions together for sometime, the Trinamool and the PDCI are jostling to carve their own political space. Chowdhury, however, has not lost hope of putting up a joint fight against the CPM elsewhere in the state.

The Front partners today urged other non-CPM factions for putting up a one-to- one fight against the CPM. “Our front will contest more than 8,000 seats. The PDCI alone will fight around 5,500 seats. We will try an one-to-one fight wherever possible,” Chowdhury said.

The Front has alleged that the CPM cadres are threatening people who are filing nominations or are working in the outfits that oppose the CPM and will take up the matter with the state Election Commission. The Front, which is going to test waters in this panchayat polls, has claimed that its primary objective is to offer an alternative to the CPM.