Ailing Ghani airlifted

Statesman News Service

Kolkata/Malda, April 3. – Former railway minister and veteran Congress MP from Malda Mr ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury was admitted to Malda nursing home early this morning after he complained of acute abdominal pain.The veteran Congress leader was later shifted to a nursing home in Kolkata, where he is to undergo an operation to remove gall bladder stones. His condition was stated to be “stable”. Two IAF helicopters carrying the octogenarian leader and his family members besides a team of doctors left for Kolkata this afternoon. Mr Khan Chowdhury could have left for Kolkata much earlier had sudden rain not delayed the departure of the helicopter. The Congress stalwart was accompanied by his sister, Mrs Ruby Noor and his brother, Mr AH Khan Chowdhury, both MLAs. Mr Khan Chowdhury was rushed to a private nursing home in Malda early this morning. Earlier, a team of five doctors attended Mr Ghani Khan Chowdhury. They said the leader was suffering from gall bladder stones. Finally, Mr Ghani Khan Chowdhury was referred to the nursing home in Kolkata. The director of Malda Nursing Home, Dr Tapan Roy, said the pain was so intense that they had no other option but to shift Mr Chowdhury to Kolkata. After the news of Mr Ghani Khan Chowdhury’s ailment spread in Malda town, hundreds of his supporters and well wishers gathered in front of his nursing home. Telephone calls kept coming from various parts of the country, with political leaders inquiring about the condition of the octogenarian leader. Doctors said they detected several stones in the gall bladder of Mr Chowdhury and that the leader had been suffering from gastritis for the last few days. “The exact cause of his ailment is still unknown”, Dr Tapan Roy said. The race to have a glimpse of the ailing leader was so uncontrollable that police had to resort to a mild lathi-charge. In Kolkata, senior Congress leaders including state Congress’ Working president Mr Pradip Bhattacharjee, former PCC chief Mr Somen Mitra as well as the Trinamul Congress supremo Miss Mamata Banerjee and her party’s Rajya Sabha MP Mr Mukul Roy visited the nursing home. With the ailing Congress heavyweight not around during the poll campaign, the feud-ridden party, which controls the Malda Zilla Parishad, is likely to face problems in retaining its traditional stronghold in the district, state Congress leaders admitted. Factional bickering over the nomination of candidates between the Congress MP Mr Adhir Choudhury and Congress legislative party leader Mr Atish Sinha in neighbouring Murshidabad, also considered another Congress bastion, has already hit the street.