The attempts to forge an electoral understanding between the Left Front and Indian Secular Front (ISF) in West Bengal for the upcoming Lok Sabha election fell flat on Thursday with the ISF announcing candidates for 14 seats.
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ISF MLA Naushad Siddique, who had made tall claims about contesting from the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat against Trinamool Congress’ Abhishek Banerjee, backed out from the contest. The ISF has fielded Majnu Laskar from the seat.
The ISF has also fielded its candidate, Noor Alam Khan, from Jadavpur, where the Left Front has nominated Srijan Bhattacharya. The ISF has nominated Mozammel Haque for Balurghat, Mofiqul Islam for Uluberia, and lawyer Jamir Hossain for Barrackpore.
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Announcing the candidates, ISF leader Naushad Siddique blamed the Left Front leadership for the absence of an electoral understanding. Mr. Siddique said that his party wanted the electoral understanding to materialise but “it seemed that those who talked about secular alternatives had people from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in their midst”.
While the Left Front leadership was keen on having an electoral understanding with the ISF, State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had not taken any interest in reaching out to the ISF. Last week, the Left Front chairperson Biman Bose had said that they were trying to iron out differences with the ISF.
The Left Front has announced candidates for 23 seats and the Congress has declared nominees for seven seats. The Left Front and the Congress have come to an electoral understanding on a majority of the seats. Political observers feel that Trinamool Congress, whose leadership was sceptical about the ISF eating into Muslim votes, will be helped by the ISF fielding candidates separately.