Mamata not to contest polls in Bengal

Kolkata : Trinamool Congress supremo and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she will not contest the assembly elections in West Bengal but will get herself elected later if her party comes to power.

“I think instead of contesting one seat, I can look after all 294 assembly polls. It is a tradition. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar did that,” she told reporters here before leaving for New Delhi.

It is expected that if her party is elected to power, Mamata Banerjee will be the next chief minister of West Bengal.

She emphasised on peaceful polls in West Bengal.

“I urge all to follow democracy. It is our duty to establish democracy and do that peacefully irrespective of political colours,” she said.

“We belong to the place of Rabindranath Tagore and poet Nazrul Islam. We should all vote peacefully in keeping with the best traditions of democracy and each exercising their own political choice,” she said.

She said the alliance with Congress is intact.

A greyed-out Left legion and a tender-footed opposition led by Trinamool Congress pulled up their batting pads in West Bengal as bugles were sounded on Tuesday for the crucial Assembly elections here beginning Apr 18.

For the over-34-year-old-uninterrupted-communist rule led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), already weakened by consecutive electoral setbacks in the last few votes over unpopular land policies, the election poses an uphill climb.

However, the polls are no cakewalk for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) either despite groundswell of support for her party in recent elections.

Polling for the election to the Legislative Assembly of West Bengal will be held in six phases from April 18 to May 10.

The counting of votes will take place on May 13 and the election process shall be completed before May 18, said the Election Commission.

As per the final electoral roll the total number of votes in West Bengal is 5,60,91,973 and there will be 51,919 polling stations in the state.