MALDA, April 28: Many followers of Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, including the Congress MLAs in North Malda, have expressed unhappiness at the Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi's failure to mention Mr Das Munshi in her speech at Kandaran, Samsi.
A section of Congress leaders played the blame game till late yesterday night, accusing each other for this ‘mistake’ and for the ‘mismanagement’ of Mrs Gandhi's rally, which has also claimed the life of a dedicated Congress worker, in Harishchandrapur.
“I was hurt that Mrs Sonia Gandhi did not mention the name of our leader Priya-da in her speech,” said Mr Indra Narayan Majumdar, elected member of Chanchal panchayat samiti.
“Had any leader of Malda district Congress, including the Malda MP (Mr AH Khan Choudhury who was present), briefed her, she would not have made this mistake. No leader had informed her that she came here in 2004 for Priya-da's election campaign,” Mr Majumdar said.
The Congress MLAs, including Mr Krishnendu Choudhury from English Bazaar, pointed out the mistake to Mrs Sonia Gandhi when she got down from the dais.
“Madam (Sonia Gandhi) admitted her ‘mistake’ when the matter was pointed out. Madam said that she did not know that Mr Das Munshi was elected as MP from here,” said Mr Asif Mehbub, the Congress MLA from Kharba (Chanchal).
“Everybody expected that Mrs Gandhi would say something about Priya-da's prolonged illness during the rally,” said Mr Suresh Behani, who was another contender for North Malda.
Who drafted the speech copy for Mrs Sonia Gandhi?
A section of Congress leaders have blamed Mr Masudur Rahman, chief election agent of Miss Mausam Noor. Mr Rahman was also in charge of organising the rally there. Another section is blaming Mr Pranab Mukherjee, the external affairs minister, who was with Mrs Gandhi.
Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Mr Pranab Mukherjee did not say a single word about Priya Ranjan Das Munhsi in the rally yesterday but they recalled the memory of the late ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury repeatedly to beg votes for Miss Mausam Noor.
In other election news, the CPI-M cadres have been alerted by their district leadership to check the ‘communal trend’ of voting, following the shadow of ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury in North Malda.
It was also reported that Miss Noor and her followers are confident enough of getting huge number of votes from Harishchandrapur I & II, Chanchal I & II and Ratua I & II blocks where 65 to 67 per cent (based on census report 2001) people belong to the Muslim community.
The cadres are worried about a similar trend in Gazole, where Muslim population is 21 per cent. Muslims are predicted to lean towards Miss Noor because she belongs to the family of a Muslim Pir at Pandua, Gazole. n sns
No comments:
Post a Comment