Kolkata: The Left Front on Friday nominated former Sandeshkhali MLA Nirapada Sardar as the CPI(M) candidate from the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal, while the party's Pratik Ur Rahaman will take on TMC's Abhishek Banerjee in Diamond Harbour.
Releasing another list of front candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, LF chairman Biman Bose also announced its nominees for three more constituencies, taking the total number to 28.
The front also announced the candidature of Prabir Ghosh of Forward Bloc from Barasat, Tapan Ganguly of CPI from Ghatal and Debdoot Ghosh of CPI(M) from Barrackpore.
Sardar, the former CPI(M) MLA, had been arrested by the state police over allegations of violent protests in Sandeshkhali and was released on bail granted by the Calcutta High Court.
The Sandeshkhali assembly segment, from where Sardar had won in the 2011 state polls but lost in 2016, is situated within the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency in North 24 Parganas district.
Sandeshkhali was rocked by protests in February over allegations of sexual atrocities and land grabbing by goons owing allegiance to the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Following a meeting of the front, Bose announced the name of student leader Rahaman as the CPI(M) candidate from Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district, where TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is contesting for a third consecutive term.
The LF, in alliance with the Congress, is set to fight the Lok Sabha elections to the 42 seats in the state.
The front earlier announced the names of 23 candidates, including that of CPI(M)'s West Bengal state secretary and politburo member Mohammad Salim from Murshidabad.
The Left Front is likely to announce candidates for two more seats - Jaynagar and Mathurapur - and leave 12 for the Congress.
Asked about the failure in reaching an understanding with the Indian Secular Front (ISF), Bose said that the Left Front had wanted to go into an electoral understanding with it, but they had demanded at least seven to eight seats, which, he maintained, was not possible to be given to a new party.
The LF had entered into a seat-sharing arrangement with the ISF in the 2021 assembly polls in the state, the year the Indian Secular Front was formed.
Bose said the ISF has unilaterally announced the names of candidates to some seats, thus shutting out the possibility of any seat-sharing arrangement with it.
Having announced the names of candidates for 13 seats in the state, the ISF has blamed the Left Front for the proposed alliance not fructifying in the Lok Sabha elections.
Bose also accused TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee of not speaking on the "issues which are affecting the people, like increase in medicine prices and lack of job opportunities in Bengal".
(This report has been published as part of an auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)