RSP likely to contest alone in Malda panchayat polls

Statesman News Service

SILIGURI/MALDA, April 8: The RSP is likely to go it alone in the forthcoming panchayat elections in the Jalpaguri and Malda districts.“The party has not yet pulled out of the Left Front regarding the approaching panchayat polls. We have set certain conditions though,” said the RSP Jalpaiguri district secretary Mr Sunil Banik.In Malda, several rounds of talks have been held between the CPI-M and RSP at Habibpur, Bamongola and Old Malda Blocks but most meetings so far has remained inconclusive. According to the RSP leadership, the party’s state leaders held a workers’ meeting in Malda on 1 April. “ We were instructed to prepare to go it alone in the panchayat elections,” the RSP leadership, said.In Jalpaiguri district, the RSP leadership said that they had demanded 15 of the 34 zilla parishad seats in the district, which the CPI-M is unlikely to accept. Mr Banik said that a bi-partite negotiation with the CPI-M was still going on. “We should be able to decide on the subject in a day or two,” he added.In Malda, the RSP had demanded 36 grampanchayat seats in Old Malda Block, which was not accepted by the CPI-M. “The seat adjustments should be made through detailed discussion based on the ground reality and present strength of the organisations,” said Mr Goutam Gupta, RSP district secretary, Malda.The Left Front in Malda would finalise seat sharing with allies on 12 April.