Trinamul dilly-dally

Statesman News Service

MALDA, April 9: The Trinamul Congress has not yet been able to announce the name of its candidate for English Bazaar constituency after Mr KN Chowdhury, the Trinamul’s former choice for the seat, severed relations with the party and joined the Congress recently. Mr KN Chowdhury is now contesting from the seat on a Congress ticket. The man in charge of Trinamul’s Malda district election committee, Mr Dulal Sarkar, said: “Mamatadi will finalise the name of our English Bazaar candidate tomorrow. Ms Sumala Agarwal and my wife, Mrs Chaitali Sarkar, are the two contenders for this seat.“Mamatadi had earlier announced the name of Mr Chowdhury as the Trinamul candidate for English Bazaar but he betrayed the party and joined the Congress.So it has become difficult for us to select a new name for the seat. We, however, have proposed two names for this seat,” Mr Sarkar added.The Trinamul councillors of English Bazaar Municipality have decided to support the Congress candidate, Mr KN Chowdhury. These councillors have even started circulating leaflets in the town in favour of Mr Chowdhury.Mr Sarkar said: “Trinamul councillors did not print these leaflets. It was Mr Chowdhury who printed the leaflets in the name of the Trinamul councillors.” Surprisingly, Ms Agarwal, whose name has reportedly been proposed by the district Trinamul leadership for the English Bazaar seat, is not interested to fight the polls on a Trinamul ticket. She said: “I will never contest from English Bazaar as a Trinamul candidate. Nobody has had any discussions with me regarding this and whether my name has been proposed or not by the party leadership is beyond my knowledge.” Yesterday, a group of Trinamul leaders and Malda district BJP leaders held a meeting on the issue of candidate selection. The BJP, a Trinamul ally, has also been trying hard to nominate its own candidate for the much-talked-about English Bazaar seat.They have reportedly sent a proposal to their state committee. If the Trinamul fails to announce the name of its candidate in a day or two, the BJP will grab the opportunity and field their own candidate from the English Bazaar seat, sources said.