Wave of sympathy vs CPM

Manas R Bannerjee

MALDA. April 18: While Congress leaders claim that a wave of public “sympathy” for the late “stalwart” ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury will prove beneficial to the party at nine out of 11 Assembly seats in Malda, CPI-M leaders are trying hard to swim with the tide on the strength of their tact. The 14th Assembly polls have turned Malda into a battlefield ~ the fight is between a “wave of sympathy” at the demise of “great” leader and the Left Front’s organisational strength. A group of Trinamul Congress leaders, who are working for a Congress candidate at the English Bazaar Assembly seat, fear that the wave may actually help the CPI-M candidate from the Ratua seat indirectly if Union minister Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi does not take the “challenge” seriously. “There is no doubt that he was a man who worked hard. He did a lot for Malda and Bengal, his death has left gap that can never be filled,” said a member of the CPI-M district secretariat. Mr Sailen Sarkar, the minister for food processing industries and horticulture, said: “People of Malda will not vote for Congress candidates because of desperate attempts they have made to capitalise on their sympathy.” There was an “anti-sympathy wave” in Ratua, where Mr Sarkar is contesting against Mr Asit Basu. Mr Basu has managed a ticket with the help of Union minister Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi. A few hours before the final selection of Mr Basu was made by the high command in New Delhi, ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury had proposed Mr Samar Mukherjee’s name in a fax message to Mrs Sonia Gandhi. CPI-m workers are asking: “How can voters pay their last respects to Ghani Khan Choudhury in Ratua?”Mr Sarkar was elected in 2001 by a margin of over 8,500 votes against Congress candidate Mr Samar Mukherjee, and the state minister filed his nomination yesterday to contest against Mr Asit Basu. Talking about the “task of development” at a tea party at the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce at Samsi under Ratua constituency, Mr Sarkar distributed his colourful “Europe Diary”. There were claims made in the diary that the Indian Chamber of Commerce and state government’s FPI&H department had jointly organised the sending of a high-level state delegation to Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in October 2005 which had achieved development for West Bengal. Questions are being raised as to whether sympathy can prevail at the English Bazaar Assembly seat where the “Malda stalwart” had done much to pacify his sister, district Congress president and others by selecting Mr Krishnendu Chowdhury, former Malda Trinamul president, as Congress candidate. To maintain the “Congress legacy”, Ghani Khan’s sister Mrs Rubi Noor and brother, and an influential group of Congress leaders do not want to help Mr Krishnendu Chowdhury as Congress candidate, sources said. The group fears that Mr Chowdhury may challenge the authority of Ghani Khan’s family if he becomes an MLA, political observers said. #