Calcutta, March 8: The state Congress today announced a "partial list" of 75 Assembly constituencies from where the party would field candidates and entrusted veterans with the task of ironing out differences with the Left over seat-sharing talks.
Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said the AICC would announce the names of the candidates. He, however, made an exception and said state Congress general secretary Om Prakash Mishra would contest against chief minister Mamata Banerjee from Bhowanipore.
He added that the Bengal unit was in the process of earmarking more seats and would announce their names once the final decision was taken.
Yesterday, the Left brought out its first list of 116 candidates, leaving room for negotiations with the Congress.
During the news conference at Bidhan Bhavan, the Bengal Congress headquarters in Calcutta, where the list of seats was announced, Chowdhury was asked about the "hurdles" the CPM and the Congress were facing while working out a seat-sharing formula.
"We admit there are problems in seat adjustment in some places. But we are very hopeful that all minor problems will be resolved through discussions as the electoral alliance with the Left has been struck because of political compulsions," he said.
"Senior state Congress leaders have been given the responsibility of interacting with the Left leadership to sort out the problems," Chowdhury added.
Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya and party veterans Somen Mitra, Abdul Mannan and Shankar Singh have been asked to interact with CPM politburo member Mohammad Salim and state secretariat member Rabin Deb to ensure that the seat-adjustment process is as smooth as possible in the districts, a source said.
Salim said seat-sharing coordination would not be a problem as both sides were eager to hold hands. "We are hopeful that everything will proceed well," he said.
Late in the evening, the Forward Bloc agreed to part with eight of the 34 seats it had contested in 2011. Sources said the Bloc was ready to give up Jalpaiguri and Howrah's Shyampur, too, provided it was given two seats elsewhere.
Chowdhury said there could be "friendly contests" in some seats if the CPM did not agree to allow the Congress to field candidates from there.
"There are problems over some seats in Murshidabad. The Left has announced candidates for those seats. In case the Left doesn't rethink its decision and allot the seats to us, there might be friendly contests between the Congress and the Left. But we hope the issue will get sorted out through discussions," he said.
Hours later, the RSP said it would not part with the Naoda, Burwan, Suti, Bharatpur and Raghunathganj in Murshidabad, seats that the party had contested in 2011.
Congress sources said the "friendly contests" could take place in 15-odd seats in districts such as Jalpaiguri, Murshidabad, Malda, Purulia, East and West Midnapore and North and South 24-Parganas.
For Purulia's Jaipur and two seats in Murshidabad - Hariharpara and Domkal - the Left has announced candidates although the Congress has said it wants to contest them. Hariharpara and Domkal, however, do not feature in the Congress list announced today.
Chowdhury has appealed to party veterans to contest the Assembly polls although some have expressed reluctance citing "old age" and other "compulsions".
Some in the party gave the example of senior leader Somen Mitra, drawing attention to his "keenness" to enter the poll fray. The Congress sources said Mitra wanted to contest from Baisnabnagar in Malda, leaving his turf in central Calcutta. The Congress's Isha Khan Choudhury is the sitting MLA of the seat.
According to the sources, Mitra had visited Malda "twice or thrice" to gauge the prospects of winning if he or his wife Shikha contested from the district. Mitra was learnt to have last week visited Baisnabnagar, for which Malda Congress president Mausam Noor has recommended his name. "We want Somen Mitra to contest from Baisnabnagar," Mausam said, adding that Isha could be fielded from Sujapur.
Mitra, 74, said he had not decided from where he would prefer to contest. "I have received several proposals. Yes, I have been told about the Malda Congress's offer. However, I have not taken the final decision," he said.
A state Congress general secretary said: "If a veteran like Somenda can think of contesting elections once again, why not the other seniors in our party? If they contest, our ranks will feel encouraged."
