CPI(M) to field a young blood, SFI leader against Bakshi

The CPI(M) on Thursday decided to field its student wing general secretary Ritabrata Banerjee against Trinamool's Subrata Bakshi in the Kolkata South Lok Sabha bypolls to be held on November 30. Mamata Banerjee had only a day before announced Bakshi's nomination from the seat which she held earlier.

The seat had fallen vacant after Mamata resigned from Lok Sabha after winning the Bhowanipore assmebly bypolls on September 28.

Thirty one-year-old Ritabrata, a post graduate in English, became a party wholetimer in 2005. He was drawn to the Leftist ideology as a schoolgoer in South Point school. In an interaction with the media, Ritabrata said, "This is a battle of ideology. There is nothing like weak and strong in politics. People are supreme and they alone will decide who will win or loose." He said he would draw people's attention to the spiralling price rise and hike in petrol products while the UPA-II's most important ally - Trinamool Congress - chose to remain mum. "But they indeed can influence the Centre as is evident from the scrapping of the Teesta water treaty and land bill," he said.