Bengal seats linked to big guns go to polls tomorrow

Tribune News Service

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Kolkata, May 5

Three of the four West Bengal constituencies going to the poll on Tuesday are associated with Congress party leaders who are also revered across the political spectrum.

Legacy holds sway

• Jangipur: Ex-President Pranab Mukherjee won the Lok Sabha elections twice from the constituency; his son Abhijit last fought unsuccessfully on the Congress ticket in 2019
• Malda: Legacy of ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, who served in Indira's and Rajiv’s cabinets, is still alive. He won eight times in a row. The seat is now divided into Malda Uttar & Malda Dakshin
• Murshidabad: All eyes are on the seat as it is being contested by CPM state secretary Mohd Salim. The seat has been always won by a Muslim candidate

Jangipur, from where former President Pranab Mukherjee, had won the Lok Sabha elections twice, has said goodbye to Mukherjee’s memories and has turned a new leaf.

Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee last fought on a Congress ticket from Jangipur in 2019 and lost to TMC’s Khalilur Rehman.

This time the Congress has given ticket to Mortaza Hussain who is also being supported by CPM. While the TMC has repeated Khalilur Rehman, the BJP aspirant from the seat is Dhananjoy Ghosh.

The legacy of ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, who won from the Malda LS constituency eight consecutive times and remained the Railway Minister under both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, however, has a lasting impact in the area that he represented in the Lok Sabha when he was alive.

The old Malda seat has been bifurcated into Malda Uttar and Malda Dakshin constituencies. The influence of the former Railway Minister still reigns supreme in these two constituencies. Votes are sought in his name by his family members.

While there is no one from ABA Ghani Choudhury’s family in Malda Uttar constituency, the disgruntlement of Mausam Noor, Ghani Khan Choudhury’s niece, could prove troublesome for the TMC candidate from the seat former IPS officer Prasun Banerjee.

Noor, TMC Member in Rajya Sabha, had represented Malda Uttar in 2009 and 2014 as Congress nominee and wanted the TMC ticket for the constituency in 2024.

Khagen Murmu, a former CPM legislator, is the sitting BJP MP from the constituency who is seeking re-election as the BJP nominee.

Malda Dakshin was won by Ghani Khan Choudhury’s brother Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury in 2019. He has handed over the mantle to his son Isha Khan Choudhury, who is the Congress candidate this time.

The Congress candidate is facing a tough challenge from the BJP’s English Bazar MLA Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury who lost in 2019 by a paltry margin of 8,000 votes only. TMC candidate in the constituency is Shahnawaj Ali Raihan.

The minority dominated Murshidabad seat is being contested by CPM state secretary Mohd Salim, TMC’s sitting MP Abu Taher Khan and BJP’s Gauri Shankar Ghosh. Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has alleged that CPM has fielded a strong Muslim candidate in Murshidabad to help the BJP. If Ghosh could pull it off, it will break the tradition in Murshidabad which has been always won by a Muslim candidate.

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