Parties gearing up for Malda by-poll

Statesman News Service

MALDA, June 8: As the date for the Malda Lok Sabha by-poll is likely to be announced soon, political parties here have started chalking out their strategies.The CPI-M is planning to attack the Congress for its “unholy alliance” with the Trinamul Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Malda. The party is likely to unnerve the Congress, by accusing it of compromising with anything for political gains. “While the Congress is leading the UPA government at the Centre with LF support just to prevent the BJP and its ally, the Trinamul Congress, from coming to power, the Malda Congress leaders have joined hands with the BJP and the TMC to form the Malda Zilla Parishad and the English Bazaar municipal boards”, Mr Ambar Mitra, a senior CPI-M leader, said. “We will take on the Congress in the by-poll, by exposing their real face,” Mr Mitra said. Mr Goutam Chakraborty and Mr Narendra Nath Tiwari of the Congress have formed the Malda Zilla Parishad and the English Bazaar municipal boards respectively, with the support of the TMC and the BJP. The LF leaders, ousted from power at the English Bazaar Municipality, have started circulating leaflets here, terming the Congress an “opportunistic” party. The leaflet read: “Leaving the path of secularism, the Malda Congress, in its narrow political interests, has chosen the opportunistic way of politics and formed local boards with the support of the BJP and the Trinamul.” As ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury is not in the picture, the CPI-M leaders are hoping to bag the Malda seat this year. The seat has been under the control of the Congress since 1980. The state parliamentary affairs minister, Mr Sailen Sarkar, would contest the Malda by-poll as a CPI-M candidate this year. He has already started holding meetings with the party workers here. Mr Sarkar also met former Malda MP, Mr Dinesh Joardar recently to seek his suggestion about facing the Congress in the ensuing by-poll.