Former state urban development minister and former Siliguri mayor Asok Bhattacharya will again be the face of the Left Front as the Siliguri Municipal Corporation goes to the polls on 22 January.

The Left Front today released the first list of 35 candidates, leaving ‘open’ four seats of the Congress, which that party had secured in the last civic body elections in 2015.

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According to Left Front leaders, around 60 percent (28 candidates) young faces, including candidates from the student and youth wings and also from Red Volunteers, an organization, which had been on the streets to help people during Covid-19, had been inducted. CPI-M veterans and outgoing councillors Nurul Islam and Dilip Singh did not make it in the first list.

The Left Front and Congress have decided to contest the elections on a seat-sharing strategy. Meanwhile, an outgoing CPI-M councillor of ward 26, Dipayan Roy, walked into the Trinamul Congress hours after the announcement of the Left list. “Asok Bhattacharya had said he was not willing to contest elections, but the party is of the opinion that he should contest. The people also want to see Mr Bhattacharya as a candidate. Therefore, he will be fielded from ward 6.  Mr Bhattacharya had secured victory in the same ward during the last elections. We are hopeful that the Left Front will win by defeating the Trinamul
Congress and the BJP and form the elected civic board this time also,” said Darjeeling district Left Front convener Jibesh Sarkar. The 72-year-old Bhattacharya, who has been relieved from the district party secretariat due to the age ceiling, has been a prominent face of the party.

After losing the Assembly elections in Siliguri in 2011, Mr Bhattacharya guided victory for the Left in the SMC polls in 2015 and also in the three-tier Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad elections, defeating the Trinamul Congress in the same year. He also defeated the ruling party in the next Assembly elections (2016) in Siliguri. He also popularized the Left-Congress combine as the ‘Siliguri model.’ However, he tasted defeat at the hands of the BJP in Siliguri in the last Assembly elections.

“I had decided not to contest in the elections, but one has to accept the party’s decision and my personal call is secondary,” Mr Bhattaharya said. Darjeeling district Congress (Plains) president Sankar Malakar said they were holding discussions with the Left Front to finalise the candidates.

Mr Bhattacharya launched his election campaign in ward 6 today. He bagged only 759 votes in the Assembly elections, while the TMC had secured 2086 votes and BJP got 1577 votes in the ward that has a significant minority population. “Mr Bhattacharya has been credited for formulating strategies, taking Congress on the side to defeat the Trinamul Congress in three consecutive elections. But the party has been facing a crisis of second rung of leadership.

The last elections were bipolar, but now in terms of Assembly election results, the BJP has also emerged as a formidable force,” said a political analyst. The party will field the youngest candidate, as per the first list, in ward 10, where 24- year-old Suraj Kundu, the district SFI member, is set to fight the battle.

According to Mr Sarkar, Left Front constituents CPI, RSP and Forward Block will contest in six of the total 47 wards in Siliguri. The lone Nepali speaking candidate, Sunita Ghising, will contest in Ward 42. He said outgoing councillor
of ward 45 Nurul Islam had expressed his unwillingness to become a candidate, while in ward 42, where Dilip Singh had won earlier, had now been reserved for women candidates.

The opposition parties, on the other hand, took a dig at Mr Bhattacharya and termed the decision a ‘drama.’ Trinamul Congress leader Gautam Deb taunted Mr Bhattacharya, saying his decision to contest the polls was predecided. Mr Deb said the Trinamul Congress could alone take on the combined force of the CPI-M-Congress-BJP.