Trinamool considering fielding candidate from Kerala's Nilambur Assembly seat

Kolkata, May 27 (IANS) Having announced the candidate for the bypolls to the Kaliganj Assembly constituency in the Nadia district of West Bengal, Trinamool Congress is now considering fielding a candidate in the Nilambur seat in Kerala.

Party insiders said that in case Trinamool Congress decides to field a candidate in Nilambur, the choice would be the two-time Left Democratic Front candidate P.V. Anvar, who has moved away from the Left and is currently associated with Mamata Banerjee's party.

In October last year, Anvar severed his ties with the Left Front Democratic Front and floated a new political party christened Democratic Movement of Kerala. Later, the new political outfit merged with Trinamool Congress and Anvar also resigned from the chair of the legislator.

“Like West Bengal, the Assembly elections for Kerala are also scheduled next year. So the bypolls for Nilambur scheduled next month are the right opportunity for our party leadership to measure whether we will be in a position to field candidates at least from some constituencies in Kerala in the Assembly elections next year. That is where discussions within the party have surfaced on whether to field a candidate for the Nilambur bypolls with Anvar as the party candidate. However, the final decision will be taken by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” said a senior member of the West Bengal cabinet who did not wish to be named.

To recall, earlier, Trinamool Congress made attempts to expand the party’s base outside West Bengal. The party leadership mainly concentrated on states from the northeast like Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya. However, the electoral results were disastrous for the party.

Kaliganj in West Bengal and Nilambur in Kerala are among the five Assembly constituencies in four states going to bypolls on June 19. Apart from West Bengal and Kerala, the other three are Kadi and Visavdar in Gujarat, and Ludhiana-West in Punjab.

The counting will be on June 23. The last date for filing nominations is June 2, and the date for the scrutiny of nominations is June 3. The last date for the withdrawal of candidature is June 5.

--IANS

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