ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2006

Bengal LF’s List Of Candidates

Emphasises Both Youth And Experience

B Prasant

THE list of candidates of the Bengal Left Front, released on February 16 represents a prudent mixture of the young and the veteran of Left politics in the state. 

Biman Basu, chairman, Bengal Left Front, officially released the list as well the Left Front election manifesto in the presence of CPI(M) leaders Jyoti Basu, Anil Biswas, and the leadership of the Bengal Left Front at Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan.

The Left Front has put into the electoral battle 290 candidates; two have been left to the RJD and two to the NCP.

The Left Front has fielded no less than 131 new faces. The CPI(M) candidates include 108 comrades in the fray for the first time.

The CPI(M) has changed 52 sitting MLA’s, the Forward Bloc 8, the WBSP 2, and the RSP and the CPI, one each.

The constituent party-based breakdown of the Left Front candidates looks like this:

Dwelling on the composition of the list, state secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M) Anil Biswas said that the aim with which the CPI(M) and the Left Front proceeded towards the assembly elections was to ensure the setting up of the seventh Left Front government. 

Towards this end, the CPI(M) leader said, a host of new candidates have been brought in. Anil Biswas pointed out that the new candidates came with a good harvesting of political and organisational experience, and many were well-versed in the running of administrative structures.

The experience the new faces possessed, observed Anil Biswas, would be utilised well not just in governance but in the building up of the organisation as well.

Briefly analysing the list of candidates, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member said that in the political battle that would be the 2006 assembly elections, the Left Front candidates represented a wide sweep of the social spectrum. "There are 11 educationists, from schools, colleges, and universities, and four renowned physicians in the list of the candidates of the CPI(M) and the Left Front", said Anil Biswas.  There are also sportspersons of international repute, and there are artistes from the world of both the visual and the performing arts.

There has been a seven per cent increase in the number of women candidates.  The women candidates stand at 33 out of the CPI (M)’s 210 candidates.  There were 23 women candidates in 2001. In the years to come, pointed out Anil Biswas, the number of women candidates would surely increase. 

All women candidates would run from seats that always vote overwhelmingly in favour of the CPI(M), revealed Anil Biswas who said that this time around, the percentage of women candidates winning would surely be far higher than in 2001. The SC, ST, and candidates from the minority communities feature prominently in the list, he added.

Biman Basu and Anil Biswas said that the changes brought about in the list of CPI(M) and Left Front candidates had little or nothing to do with performance.  The decision to bring in fresh blood and to present a mix-and-match of the young and the experienced was aimed at further accelerating the high performance quotient of the Bengal Left Front government.