English Bazaar stands out

Statesman News Service

MALDA, May 11: The Left Front in Malda has recovered two seats but lost the much-hyped English Bazaar seat by a narrow margin.

Congress candidate, Mr Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury, who was nominated by the late Congress stalwart, ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, has snatched the English Bazaar constituency from the CPI-M’s clutch.

He defeated the CPI-M candidate, Mr Samarananda Roy, by 906 votes.

Though the district Congress president, Mrs Rubi Noor, won from Sujapur, she admitted that the sentimental wave that followed her brother’s death failed to work in this election, particularly in Kaliachak and Harishchandrapur constituencies.

The CPI-M candidate, Mr Biswanath Ghosh, has defeated Congress candidate Mr AH Khan Choudhury in Kaliachak.

The Forward Bloc recovered the Harischandrapur seat from Congress grip by defeating Mr Mostak Alam.

Though the CPI-M claimed to recover the Aridanga seat, its candidate, Mr Sadikul Islam, was defeated by the Congress contestant, Mrs Sabitri Mitra, from here.

Of the 11 seats, the Left Front won seven seats but lost the English Bazaar seat. The Congress bagged four seats and lost two.

In the last Assembly election, the CPI-M bagged six seats and Congress won fives.

This year, the CPI-M retained the Ratua seat. CPI-M candidates won the Manikchak, Habibpur, Gazole and Malda seats.

BJP has secured second position in Habibpur constituency, though party leaders claimed to have won this seat as in the Red bastion, finally, Mr Khagen Murmu defeated the VHP-backed BJP candidate, Mr Ramlal Hansda.

A triangular fight ensued in Manikchak and Malda, where an Independent candidate and a Trinamul Congress candidate notched up votes from the Congress bank that helped the CPI-M win.

Commenting on Kaliachak, district Congress president, Mrs Rubi Noor, said: “Internal squabbling among the panchayat’s Congress members is the main cause of poor results in Kaliachak.”

MrKhan Choudhury said: “Barkatda’s illness prevented me from monitoring the election work stringently.”

Winning Congress candidate, Mr KN Choudhury, said: “My win is Barkatda’s win. Had he been alive, he would have felt delighted with my success.”

Mr Samar Roy, who has been defeated, said on the other hand: “I will continue doing my job as before.”

It was learnt that the CPI-M workers and leaders are upset after detecting bad performance by its workers.

In five polling booths under Ward No. 3, No. 16 and others and also in Binodpur and Mahadipur villages, CPI-M candidates did not get the expected votes. Even Trinamul Congress candidates failed to get a large number of votes.