Opposition fritters away advantage

Statesman News Service

MALDA, April 19: Trinamul chief Miss Mamata Banerjee’s appeal for a “grand alliance” among voters at the grassroots level to provide a united front against the Left is a remote possibility in English Bazaar.The sympathy wave in favour of the Congress after the death of the Malda MP, ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, is the only hope to defeat the CPI-M here. The Opposition parties ~ the Congress, Trinamul Congress and the BJP are virtually divided in the English Bazaar Assembly segment on the selection of the Congress candidate here. A group of Trinamul Congress leaders is working for the Congress candidate, Mr Krishnendu Chowdhury and another group led by Mr Dulal Sarkar is trying hard to defeat him.To teach a lesson to Mr Chowdhury, former Malda Trinamul president, the state Trinamul Congress has allotted a ticket for English Bazaar to Mrs Chaitali Sarkar, wife of Mr Dulal Sarkar, at the last moment. Mr Sarkar is contesting as a candidate of the Trinamul-BJP alliance in Old Malda. The Trinamul leadership, close to Miss Banerjee, could not find any suitable candidate for the Trinamul and nobody agreed to come forward when Khan Choudhury allotted a Congress ticket to Mr Krishnendu Chowdhury and planned a one-to-one fight here.Malda BJP leaders tried hard to convince the state leadership, including the Trinamul, to allow a BJP candidate in English Bazaar but they were not allowed. The district BJP president, Mr Dinesh Basak, said: “Since 1952, we have been contesting in English Bazaar. Hari Prasanna Mishra had been contesting here for the Jana Sangha from 1971 and in 1977, Hari Prasanna Mishra got 30.4 per cent of the vote when Mr Sailen Sarkar, a CPI-M candidate, won the seat by securing 31 per cent votes. The BJP candidate has always been either in the second or third position since then and former Union minister Mr Tapan Sikdar had contested from here twice. The BJP has a base in English Bazaar,” Mr Basak said. It was learnt that veteran BJP workers and voters would cast their vote in favour of the CPI-M candidate, Mr Samar Roy, an MLA from English Bazaar, to take revenge on the Congress candidate, Mr Chowdhury, who severed ties with the BJP during the last parliamentary election and got close to Khan Choudhury to form the English Bazaar board with the Congress. “People will not forgive him because he changed his political ideology for his personal interest,” Mr Asim Chakraborty, BJP district committee member, said. In 2001, Mr Roy was elected from English Bazaar securing 50,507 votes and on the other hand, the Congress candidate, Mr Goutam Chakraborty, got 38,557 votes. Mr Krishnendu Choudhury was in third position, securing 32,833 votes and the BJP candidate got just 9,313 votes. Though the total votes of the Opposition is much higher, owing to internal squabbling, Mr Roy will have an advantage this year, political observers said. A group of Congress leaders cannot forget the 2001 election results and Mr Krishnendu Chowdhury’s move as he had contested to defeat Khan Choudhury’s candidate Mr Chakraborty on instruction’s from Miss Banerjee. Trinamul leader Mr Debapriya Saha, said: “Miss Banerjee had done a lot and fought for a ticket for Mr Chakraborty in English Bazaar and Mr Krishnendu Chowdhury had helped him financially during campaigning. But now Mr Chakraborty is reluctant to help him,” he said. #