Deepa Das Munshi likely to take on Mamata

KOLKATA: Senior Congress leader Somen Mitra, Deepa Das Munshi and Abdul Mannan are all likely to contest the 2016 assembly polls as the state election committee, in its Wednesday meeting, proposed their names and set to send them to the party high command in Delhi.
Mitra is likely to contest from Chowringhee and Mannan from Champdani in Hooghly, while Deepa seems to be the party's new choice for Bhowanipore.All Pradesh Congress leaders appealed to Deepa to contest from Bhowanipore and take on Mamata Banerjee even after Congress's Om Prakash Mishra offered to contest from there. On Tuesday, Mishra even led a joint rally of the Congress and CPM at Bhowanipore. State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury is even open to making this last-minute change, given Deepa's status.
Former Pradesh Congress president Somen Mitra, popularly called "chhorda", is likely to contest the assembly polls from Chowringhee as the state election committee on Wednesday recommended his name to the party high command.
Mitra's wife Sikha won from this seat as a Congress-Trinamool candidate in the 2011 assembly polls and the party maintained its lead here even in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. But Trinamool's Nayna Bandyopadhyay wrested control of the seat away in the 2014 assembly bypoll, defeating Congress's Santosh Pathak, after Sikha resigned from the state legislative assembly. But this time, Mitra is likely to get whatever little votes the Left have in this seat that has undergone a change after delimitation.
The state election panel is yet to come clear on the Jorasanko seat where Left Front chairman Biman Bose already announced that the RJD would contest. But according to party insiders, Congress may field its candidate from this seat.
Seat adjustments with the Congress made little progress at the Left Front meeting on Wednesday, with Left leaders fuming over state Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury's statement that the "partners were a liability to the CPM". RSP leader Manoj Bhattacharya questioned how could Biman Bose let the CPM join hands with Congress in rallies at Bhowanipore and Sabang, after he had announced there would be no joint rallies, except in exigency. Bhattacharya felt attending the Left meeting "was of no use" when CPM leaders, including its state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra, was giving more priority to the Congress than the partners. "Can you deny CPM activists at Malda's Malaitpur work for the Congress when the RSP has fielded a candidate?" said Bhattacharya.
In a bid to pacify the Left partners, Bose issued a statement after the meeting. "No one should make such comments when a dialogue over seat adjustments is going on," said Bose, hinting at Adhir's remark but not naming him.
The Left Front chairman later released names of 11 candidates, including independents, taking their tally to 211 of the 294 seats. Bamacharan Mukherjee is the CPM candidate from Bhatar in Burdwan, Ashis Kantha Mukherjee from Habra in North 24-Parganas and Khan Islam Ali from Khanakul in Hooghly. Forward Bloc's Keshab Bhattacharya and Manik Mukherjee will contest from Shyampukur in Kolkata and Onda in Bankura. RSP's Sukumar Ghosh is the Front candidate from Baranagar. DSP's Sk Mohammed Hossain will fight from Egra. Basirhat (North), in North 24 Parganas, Nandakumar, Mahishadal in Midnapore East and Englishbazar in Malda have been left for independents.