Making a head-start over other political parties in West Bengal, the ruling Left Front combine on Tuesday announced names of its candidates in all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, bringing in 18 new faces.
Left Front major, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, has renominated 15 of its 26 sitting members of Parliament, with most of the others dropped because of delimitation of constituencies or changes in reservation status.
CPI-M Kolkata district leader Rabin Deb, known for his organisational skills, has been pitted again against Trinamool
Congress chief Mamata Banerjee from the South Kolkata constituency.
Murshidabad district CPI-M leader and chairman of Jangipur Municipality, Mriganko Bhattacharjee will take on Congress stalwart and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee at Jangipur. The CPI-M's candidate for the seat in the previous election, Abu Hasnat Khan, had been a formidable opponent.
CPI stalwart and sitting MP from Panskura, Gurudas Dasgupta will contest from Ghatal, which came up after delimitation.
The deputy leader of CPI-M in 14th Lok Sabha Mohammed Selim was renominated from the Kolkata North constituency.
Of the 18 new faces, 13 belongs to CPI-M and three to LF constituent, Revolutionary Socialist Party, and two to another partner, Forward Bloc.
The CPI-M's Anisur Rahman and Sailen Sarkar and RSP's Manohar Tirkey are the three ministers in the state, who figure among the new faces.
The RSP and Forward Bloc went for an overhaul in the seats allotted to them. The two allies are fielding fresh candidates in five of the six LS seats they hold. Another constituent CPI, however, retained its three sitting MPs as candidates.
The CPI-M sitting MPs, who were renominated also includes party leader in Lok Sabha, Basudeb Acharya from Bankura, Lakhsman Seth from Tamluk, Sujan Chakraborty from Jadavpur, Amitava Nandi from Dum Dum, Samik Lahiri from Diamond Harbour, Jyotirmoyi Sikdar from Krishnanagar, Hannan Mollah from Uluberia, Rupchand Pal from Hooghly.
EC announces 5 phase polls