TC unilaterally releases list for Kolkata polls

KOLKATA: Without waiting further for seat-sharing with Congress to take place, Trinamool Congress on Wednesday released its list of candidates all of a sudden for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections. It has decided to contest 115 of 141 seats, leaving Congress with just 25 — four better than 21 offered earlier.

Elections to KMC and 80 other municipalities in West Bengal, is expected to be the start of the mother of all electoral battles between the ruling CPM and the Trinamool-Congress combine. It is expected to trigger unexpected bitterness between Trinamool and Congress, which is in danger of getting totally wiped off, even before the polls.

Trinamool’s refusal to give more seats to Congress has left local leaders and supporters of the party fuming. The wrath is more against the Congress high command in Delhi, which is seen to be meekly succumbing to Trinamool’s pressure tactics. With existence at stake, Congress supporters have already ransacked and destroyed portions of the state Congress office as an expression of their frustration with the leadership.

But Trinamool is unfazed. Its leader Partha Chatterjee said on Wednesday :”We have kept 25 seats reserved for the Congress to contest and one seat for one of our election partners, the SUCI (Communist).” Mr Chatterjee released the Trinamool list and said that it has already been sent also to the local state Congress leadership.

Pradip Bhattacharjee, working president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC), refused to comment. Justifying the list release, Mr Chatterjee said : “May 3 is the last date for filing nominations for the KMC elections. We don’t have much time as Saturday and Sunday are holidays. We feel that good sense will prevail upon the Congress leadership and our decision to release the list will not hamper our joint fight against the ruling CPM in West Bengal.”