KOLKATA: A day after the Congress walked out of seat-sharing talks in West Bengal and released a list of 11 candidates, the Left Front on Tuesday declared candidates for 13 more seats, barring the four seats won the Grand Old party had won in 2014. The Left had already announced its candidates for 25 seats on March 15.
However, West Bengal Left Front Committee chairman Biman Bose has given the Congress an ultimatum of 24 hours till 4.30 pm on Wednesday to reconsider its stance on the seat-sharing agreement, failing which they will announce their candidates for the remaining four seats, hammering the final nail in the coffin of the seat-sharing deal.
“We wanted to prevent a division of anti-BJP and anti-TMC votes. But, Congress unilaterally announced their candidates in 11 seats, including two of our winning seats… We have still kept our doors open for discussions and our candidate list can be changed accordingly. But the other side has to acknowledge our efforts and reciprocate or else everything will be lost,” Bose said.
Responding to the ultimatum, state Congress president Somen Mitra said: “The Left Front announced their first list of 25 candidates without consulting us... They are to be blamed for the failure of the seat-sharing agreement.”
Babul Supriyo booked for insulting Mamata
Union minister and Asansol MP Babul Supriyo was booked on Tuesday for allegedly insulting West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in BJP’s theme song which he penned and recorded recently at a studio in Mumbai.
Paschim Burdwan Student Library Co-ordination Committee filed the FIR against Supriyo over certain lines of the song allegedly showing the TMC supremo in bad light. The matter was also taken to the Election Commission which sent a show cause notice to Supriyo for campaigning on YouTube without its approval. He has been asked to respond within 24 hours.
A defiant Supriyo said: “I will answer the EC show-cause as penning down a song is not a crime. The song has not yet been released by me on YouTube, so I have not broken Model Code of Conduct.”
DIDI taunts PM, shah on temple
Taunting the BJP over its Hindutva plank, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the saffron party could not even build a Ram Mandir and dared PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah to compete with her over who is more religious.
Speaking at a Holi programme here on Tuesday, she said: “I renovated and built so many temples and their supporting civic infrastructure across the state. What did the BJP do? What development did Varanasi see? They couldn’t even build one Ram Mandir but made it into a political issue.
Wearing a tilak on forehead does not make one religious. Amit babu and Modi babu, let’s compete on who is more religious.”
Accusing the BJP of fomenting communal trouble in the state, Mamata said, “We don’t want to play Holi in blood. They come from Delhi and spread lies to defame Bengal….”