West Bengal polls 2016: Congress announces fresh list of 42 candidates, pits Deepa Dasmunshi against Mamata Banerjee from Bhabanipur seat

Kolkata: Ahead of the high voltage state Assembly Elections, Congress on Friday pitted former Union minister Deepa Dasmunshi against Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee from Bhabanipur seat.

Dasmunsi's name figures in the second list of 42 party candidates announced by the AICC, taking the total candidates declared by the party to 95.

AICC leaders have indicated that it would not contest more than 100 seats in the 294-member House thereby leaving the rest to the Left parties with which it has struck a strategic alliance.

Dasmunsi had lost the Lok Sabha polls narrowly from her husband Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi's pocket borough of Raiganj by a narrow margin of 1600 votes to Mohd Salim of CPI-M. In that polls, Mamata Banerjee had fielded Satya Ranjan Das Munshi, Deepa's brother-in-law, against her as Trinamool Congress candidate.

Among the prominent candidates are senior leader Sankar Singh who is the party nominee from Ranaghat Uttar Paschim and Arunava Ghosh from Bidhannagar.

The Congress has renominated almost all its sitting MLAs.

The grand old party had on Tuesday announced names of its candidates for 43 seats for the assembly polls.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) had on March 7 announced its first list of 116 candidates for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.

The ruling Trinamool Congress had earlier slammed the CPI (M) for forging a pre-poll alliance with the Congress, calling it as a "shameless alliance". Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been sharply critical of the strategic alliance between the Congress and the Left.

In the last Assembly elections, Congress had contested 61 seats in alliance with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress which led to ouster of the CPI(M)-led Left Front after over 34 years in power.

The election in West Bengal will be held in six phases in which the polling for the first phase will take place on April 4 and 11. Polling for the second phase will be held on April 17, the third phase on April 21, fourth on April 25 and the fifth and six phases on April 30 and May 5 respectively.

The counting of votes will take place on May 19.

(With Agency inputs)