Cong leader now Independent

Statesman News Service

MALDA, April 12: Mr Biswanath Guho, a Congress leader and the Intuc district president, today announced that he would contest as an Independent candidate from Manikchak and file his nomination papers tomorrow. When the Malda Congress was facing problems in selecting its candidate for the Manikchak seat with two names proposed~ Mr Jalial Sheikh and the former MLA from Manikchak Mr Ram Prabesh Mondal ~ Mr Guho had demanded a ticket for this seat. But finally the central leadership had decided to nominate Mr Ram Prabesh Mandal. After finalisation of Mr Mandal’s name, the followers of Mr Jalil Shiekh expressed their unhappiness and predicted a negative result in this seat.It was also learnt that another Congress group, unhappy with the decision of the central leadership regarding the Ratua candidate, decided to nominate an Independent candidate from Ratua.Mr Samar Mukherjee had demanded a ticket for the Ratua Assembly segment as a former Congress MLA and the Union defence minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had also supported his name but lastly, Mr Asit Bose won the race after the suggestion of Union minister Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi.The Indira Rajib Manch will file more candidates in five Assembly segments, including English Bazaar. Ignoring the decision of the Malda Congress, Mr Guho had contested the Assembly election several times and even filed a nomination in the Lok Sabha election when Mr ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury was the Congress candidate.