Siliguri, March 18: The Left Front today announced the candidates for 45 wards of Siliguri Municipal Corporation by nominating 18 fresh faces and 14 councillors of the previous civic board.

Jibesh Sarkar, the Darjeeling district CPM secretary who announced the candidate list at a press conference here, said nominees for the remaining two wards would be declared later. The Left Front had 18 councillors in the outgoing board and 14 of them are contesting the elections to be held on April 25.

"We have to shift some former councillors to other wards as the seats held by them are reserved this time. Two former councillors have expressed their unwillingness to contest the polls and the third person is no more. Another former councillor could not be accommodated as his seat was reserved. His wife will contest in his ward this time," Sarkar said.

Of the 47 seats at the SMC, 16 have been reserved for women for the coming polls.

A CPM leader said the Left was fielding women in 20 wards. "The number will go up to 21 once the we announce the candidate for ward 11 which is reserved for women. This means around 44 per cent of the total seats are given to women," said the leader.

Former minister Asok Bhattacharya has been fielded in ward six, while ex-mayor Nurul Islam is the candidate in ward 45.

"Of the 45 candidates, 18 are fresh faces. Youths, teachers, lawyers and social workers have been included in the list," Sarkar said.

Apart from ward 11, the Left Front is yet to declare the candidate for ward 12. While ward 11 has been allocated for the CPI, the CPM will field the candidate in ward 12. Nantu Pal and his wife Manjushree are the candidates of the Trinamul Congress in these two wards.

Sarkar said the candidates for the two seats would be declared in a few days. He said each candidate of the Left Front had been instructed to launch campaigns in their respective wards through rallies this evening.

Other prominent candidates are Mukul Sengupta (ward 46), Shankar Ghosh (ward 24), Shanti Chakraborty (ward 18), Sankar Kar (ward 30), Sharadindu Chakraborty (ward 29), Dilip Singh (ward 42) and Kamal Agarwala (10).

Cong list

The Darjeeling district Congress today released names of 40 candidates for the Siliguri Municipal Corporation elections after a tussle in the party over the delay in the announcement.

A section in the party wanted to wait and see which candidates Trinamul would put up, while another section thought that not announcing the names would mean campaigning days would be wasted.

The move to make the announcement, party insiders said, followed consistent pressure from a section of leaders and workers who saw no point in waiting for Trinamul to publish its list of candidates.

A Congress leader said: "We had wanted the party to publish its list at the earliest. But a section of district leaders was planning to wait and let Trinamul and the Left publish their lists."

The Left today announced 45 of the total 47 names, hours before the Congress made its names public.

The Congress leader said: "It is always better to move ahead and start the campaign. There is no point in sitting and waiting for others as it would have delayed our campaign."

Sankar Malakar, the Darjeeling district Congress president, while announcing the list said: "We have obtained approval from the PCC on these 40 candidates. Names of the remaining seven candidates will be announced soon."

Some senior Congress leaders spoke of the possibility of a post-poll alliance, but did not clarify with whom there would be a tie-up.

The Congress has officially not said anything about a post-election tie-up with either the Left or Trinamul.

The previous mayor, Gangotri Datta, is not on the list as she had said she would not contest.

Among the 15 Congress councillors who had won in 2009, three - Sabita Agarwal, Nantu Pal and Sanjay Pathak - have left the party.

Out of the remaining 12, Datta and four others are not contesting this time. Among them, Atul Chandra Das and Gouri Dutta have opted out because of health grounds.

Tapan Dutta, the previous councillor of ward 21, opted to field wife Swapna Dutta as the seat has been reserved for women this time.

Similar is the case of Debshankar Saha. His wife, Nisha Madhuri Saha, is the contestant from ward 39. The seat was previously held by Debshankar but is reserved for women this time.

The sitting councillors who are contesting are Swapan Chanda, Ruma Nath, Sujay Ghatak, Pampa Das, Sima Saha and Shikha Roy.

The candidature of Nilu Sharma, who was the winner from ward 40, has not been finalised.

Malakar said: "There might be a general perception that the Congress has grown weak, but even today there are Congress supporters in every ward of Siliguri. People have seen how the Congress has functioned at the civic board."

Defection

Prakash Das, the former Trinamul councillor of ward 32, joined the Congress today after he was supposedly denied a seat.

Amaresh Goyal, the former treasurer of Darjeeling district Trinamul, quit the party today. He, however, has not joined any party.