Kolkata, September 21 (Daily Kiran) : The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), a partner in the Left Front, announced its withdrawal from the Rejingar assembly by-election on Monday night. The party claims the Election Commission changed its traditional election symbol at the last minute, prompting this decision.
Tapan Hore, the secretary of RSP’s West Bengal unit, stated that instead of their usual symbol of “spade and hammer,” the Election Commission allocated a “bucket” symbol for the Rejingar by-election. This unexpected change led the party to decide against contesting the election.
Previously, the Left Front had nominated CPI(M) candidate Syed Asad Ali for the Rejingar seat. In a surprising move, RSP declared its own candidate, Debasish Chandra Mishra, but the party’s leadership has now announced its withdrawal due to dissatisfaction with the symbol allocation. This withdrawal, however, is largely symbolic since the deadline for withdrawing nominations had already passed on September 19.
Hore explained that after the scrutiny of nomination papers on Saturday, the Election Commission informed them that their traditional symbol could not be provided, and they would have to run with the “bucket” symbol instead. In protest, the RSP has chosen to step back from the election.
The by-elections for Rejingar and Nandigram assembly seats are scheduled for October 6, with the counting of votes set for October 9.
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