A war ahead for Mausam Noor?

Statesman News Service MALDA, April 2: Though the Congress candidate for North Malda, Miss Mausam Noor, has got full support from the Trinamul Congress, she looks set to face a tough triangular fight, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate looking like he could tip the balance.

The Congress and CPI-M leaders believe that the BJP will bag a decent number of votes in the Hindu-dominated segments under the North Malda Lok Sabha seat ~ particularly in Old Malda, Bamongola, Habibpur and Gazol blocks. Fresh Congress candidate Miss Noor (28) has plans, after filing her nomination on 3 April, to start campaigning in remote villages in the Hindu-dominated belt, hoping to reduce the leading margin of both the CPI-M and BJP. “Miss Noor needs to go to several villages that are as yet unvisited. She decided to file her nomination tomorrow, to kick-start the new campaign,” vice-president of the Malda district Congress, Mr Masidur Rahman, said. Mr Rahman is Miss Noor's election agent.

Mr Rahman has claimed that the Congress will secure better results in the tribal-dominated Gazol Assembly segment than their rivals. Thirty-five-year-old BJP candidate for North Malda, Mr Amlan Bhaduri, has said that he would get many more votes than the Congress candidate. “In the last parliamentary elections, the BJP candidate had secured more than 39,000 votes in Gazol, which was under the Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency. The Left Front (RSP) candidate, Mr Ranen Barman, Balurghat, got 53,000 votes while the Congress candidate bagged only 18,000 votes,” Mr Amlan Bhaduri, the BJP candidate, said.

According to Mr Bhaduri, in the last Assembly elections the BJP candidate had secured more than 48,000 votes while the Congress fell behind with only 12,000 votes. Mr Khagen Murmu was then elected as CPI-M MLA. To retain the BJP's vote bank the party candidate, Mr Bhaduri, has raised the issue of the drinking water crisis, as well as the problem of migrant labourers caused by the "unsatisfactory" implementation of the 100-days job scheme. He will also focus his campaign around the lack of electrification in tribal villages.

The BJP hopes to win a decent number of votes from Hindu pockets under the Harishchandrapur, Old Malda, and Ratua assembly segments. The CPI-M leaders appear confident of winning the North Malda seat, considering the "triangular fight". The CPI-M state environment and parliamentary affairs minister, Mr Sailen Sarkar (68), is contesting from the seat.

CPI-M party leaders claimed that, since 1991, Left Front leaders have secured more votes than the other parties in the seven Assembly segments ~ apart from in 2004, when Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi contested here. In fact, CPI-M candidate Mr Sailen Sarkar told reporters that he would win the seat by one lakh margin. The total number of the North Malda electorate is nearly 11.6 lakh.