Trinamul sign for JMM duo

June 12: Two leaders of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha known to be close to John Barla today filed their zilla parishad nominations under the Trinamul symbol in Jalpaiguri. Trinamul had been trying hard to forge an alliance with the JMM and Barla to prevent a division in the Doars tribal vote. Today, JMM leaders Binod Kuzur and Tulsi Oraon were fielded in the zilla parishad seats of Nagrakata and Metelli blocks respectively under Trinamul symbol. Both seats are reserved for STs. The JMM did not file any nominations against the duo in the two seats. Trinamul and the JMM fielded their candidates in two other zilla parishad seats of the two blocks and six other seats in Malbazar and Dhupguri blocks. “Out of the 10 seats, we are strong in six and we had asked Trinamul to leave these seats for us and field their candidates in the remaining four. Trinamul did not agree which is why we could not forge an alliance with the party,” said Binod Tigga, the assistant secretary of the north Bengal regional committee of the JMM. “Now that the candidates have been fielded, we will contest against Trinamul for the seats.” Chandan Bhowmik, the Jalpaiguri district Trinamul president, said: “We have fielded two JMM leaders as Trinamul candidates. In the remaining eight seats, we will contest against them.” Raju Bara, the general secretary of the north Bengal regional committee of JMM, said in Alipurduar subdivision, where there are 18 zilla parishad seats, the party is contesting in alliance with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. “We have an alliance with GJM and have fielded candidates in all 18 seats. There has been no alliance with Trinamul in the subdivision,” Bara said. Trinamul, which has fielded candidates in all 37 zilla parishad seats in Jalpaiguri, is not ruling out the possibility of further negotiations with the JMM and Barla. “The last date of withdrawal of nominations is June 17. We have four days from tomorrow, during which, we can hold talks and reach a consensus on seats for which both our party and the JMM fielded candidates today. Accordingly, the candidates can be pulled back from both sides with the entire support being thrown behind a common candidate,” said a Trinamul leader. “We are mulling these options.” Today, the Congress and the Left Front candidates filed nominations in some more seats in all the three tiers of the panchayat system.