Pranab campaigns for Mausam

Statesman News Service

GAZOLE (Malda) April 22: The external affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee today begged votes for the Congress candidate for North Malda parliamentary constituency Miss Mausam Noor, recalling the contribution of former railway minister and Congress patriarch in Malda, ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury.

Clearing the air on the family and faction feud, Mr Pranab Mukherjee today said while addressing an election rally in Gazole that the party had earlier decided to nominate Miss Mausam Noor, niece of ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, for the North Malda Lok Sabha seat.

“Though Dr AN Khan Choudhury (Lebu-babu) was another contender for this seat, the party high command could not consider his candidature due to technical problems and some litigation. The party would give him an opportunity to contest in future elections,” Mr Pranab Mukherjee said.

Mr Mukherjee claimed that ABA Ghani Khan had dreamt of an alliance between the Congress and the Trinamul Congress, but nothing had materialized from his dreams at that time.

“But this time we have been able to make an alliance with the Trinamul Congress to oust the CPI-M from West Bengal because the Trinamul Congress has cut off relations with the NDA,” he concluded.

The West Bengal PCC chief Mr Pranab Mukherjee came down heavily on the Communist ruling government, saying: “In the last 32 years the CPI-M led LF has extorted people in the name of the ‘rule’ of the state. People have been deprived of many benefits formulated by the Congress led Central government.”

“How can the CPI-M claim votes from you to form the Central government when it has no base in 25 states in the country? These are not panchayat elections, where the CPI-M could form a board. These are parliamentary elections. Only the Congress can claim votes from people and make the government in Delhi,” he said.

The external affairs minister focused on recent programmes of the Central government and promised: “If the Congress comes to power it will pass the Food Security Act to provide either 25 kg rice or wheat to every poor family at the rate of Rs 3 per month.”

Mr Mukherjee claimed that the India government, led by Dr Manmohan Singh, has been able to save the country from global recession. At present, the economies of India and China are in a good position, compared to the developed countries.

Mr Mukherjee has pointed out that he had allotted Rs 31,000 crore for the 100-days job scheme in his last interim budget and chalked out several schemes for minorities to provide more financial loans from banks. He also drew the voters' attention to the implementation of the old age pension scheme, and the training programme for young widows.