March 24: The district RSP in Alipurduar that has fielded Nirmal Das for the seat said there was no question of withdrawing his candidature although the CPM today announced it would support Biswaranjan Sarkar of the Congress as the alliance candidate.

Today, the zonal CPM leaders of Alipurduar held a news conference and announced their support for Sarkar.

"We will extend complete support to Biswaranjan Sarkar. He is the common candidate of the anti-Trinamul alliance. Based on discussions with the Congress, most seats were shared between the Left and the Congress. Accordingly, Alipurduar had been left for the Congress. We will support him (Sarkar)," Dipak Dasgupta, a zonal CPM leader, said.

Dasgupta also held a meeting with Sarkar, the Alipurduar district president of the Congress, on the campaign plan.

Alipurduar will vote on April 17.

The RSP leaders, however, said they would support Das.

"We have fielded Nirmal Das as our candidate for the Alipurduar seat. The state Left Front leadership is aware of it and there is no question of withdrawing him from the contest. We are not ready to hear what some district and local Left leaders are saying but we want to reiterate that our candidate will be there in the seat," Alipurduar district RSP president Sunil Banik said.

"Even if it leads to a direct contest... we do not have much to do," he added.

Das had been named by Left Front chairman Biman Bose although later, state Congress chief Adhir Choudhury declared Sarkar as the " jot" nominee.

Trinamul has fielded Sourav Chakraborty, the district party president of Alipurduar.

Today, Sarkar said: "Leaders of the district Left Front, including the CPM, met us today and confirmed that they will campaign for me. Joint campaigns are going on in different places and Alipurduar will not be an exception."

Today"s development has left the local CPM leaders in an awkward position. "There are some seats where there would be friendly contests between the Left and the Congress. We are hopeful that the problem would be resolved in Alipurduar. If it is not, there might be a friendly contest in this seat as well," Krishna Banerjee, the convener of Alipurduar district Left front, said.

An observer said the presence of an RSP and a Congress candidate will help Trinamul. The anti-Trinamul votes will be split if both candidates file nominations," he said.