Fearing a setback in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, the CPM has refrained from inducting new faces in its candidates’ list for 42 seats in West Bengal. The list, which was released on Tuesday after a Left Front meeting, has had little impact in the political circles as the big brother CPM has nominated most of its sitting MPs.

Of its 26 sitting MPs now, the CPM has re-nominated 20 of them for the parliamentary polls due in April-May.

Even seven-time or eight-time MPs like Basudev Achariya and Rupchand Pal were given party tickets. According to a primary estimate, the average age of the Marxist candidates is between 60 to 70 years, a study in contrast when compared with the current voters’ list, where most fall into the 18-35 years of age group.

Among those sitting MPS whose name did not figure in the list are — Minati Sen (Jalpaiguri), Rupchand Murmu (Jhargram), Nikhilananda Sar (Burdwan) and Sunil Khan (Durgapur). A new candidate was nominated in Mathurapur constituency and the sitting MP of the area Basudeb Burman was shifted to Ranaghat (SC) seat.

Even though Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee himself snubbed Marxist strongman in East Midnapore, Laxman Seth, following the Nandigram fiasco, the party chose to re-nominate him for the Tamluk constituency.

Announcing the list of candidates, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said, “We know this is a tough election for us and we have past experience to contest such elections¿ Not only the TMC and Congress, there are other forces who have joined hands with them against us,” he said.

CPM Kolkata district leader Rabin Deb, known for his organisational skills, will be pitted against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee from the Kolkata (South) constituency. Murshidabad district CPM leader and chairman of Jangipur Municipality Mriganko Bhattacharjee will contest against state Congress chief and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee at Jangipur.

CPI stalwart and sitting MP from Panskura, Gurudas Dasgupta, will slug it out in Ghatal constituency, which was formed after delimitation in place of Pashkura.

The deputy leader of CPM in 14th Lok Sabha, Md. Selim, was re-nominated from the Kolkata (North) constituency.

While the CPM has failed to nominate young candidates, three of RSP’s four candidates are new faces.

Both the RSP and the Forward Bloc have dropped sitting MPs. The Forward Bloc changed its Barasat sitting MP Subrata Bose, who has been replaced by Sudin Chatterjee, a known face in CPM headquarters at Alimuddin Street.

As was expected, the list does not carry Somnath Chatterjee’s name. In place of the former Speaker, CPM candidate Ram Chandra Dome will contest the elections from Bolpur, which was declared as a reserved constituency after delimitation.

Buddha discounts Cong, Trinamool, says 2+2 may be zero in politics
Hitting out at the Congress and the Trinamool Congress for their tie-up for the Lok Sabha polls, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday said “politics is not arithmetic”.

“Politics is not arithmetic. Normal arithmetical calculations do not apply,” the CPM Politburo member was quoted as saying in the party mouthpiece.

“Two and two may be zero in politics and not four as in arithmetic,” he said.

A leader of a Left Front constituent, referring to the alliance between the Opposition parties, dubbed it as “unprincipled”.

“We have to think about how to expose the totally immoral and unprincipled alliance of the Congress and the Trinamool to defeat the Left Front,” RSP leader Manoj Bhattacharjee said.

He also underplayed veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu’s assessment that the seats of the Left Front might decrease from the 2004 elections in the event of an alliance between the Trinamool and the Congress.

“The ground situation is not that is being projected in different quarters,” he said.