TMC doing its best to get all four seats going to polls in Bengal on May 7
By Tirthankar Mitra
The third phase of Lok Sabha polls on May 7 will witness an acid test of the solidness of the alliance between Congress and CPI(M) in West Bengal, both being allies in INDIA coalition. The four seats, Murshidabad, Jangipur, Malda (North), Malda (South) which go to the polls on May 7 were once part of an apparently impregnable stronghold of Congress in the state.
Joining forces seems to be the formula for both the Congress and CPI(M) to recover this lost support base. Hence armed with Congress support, Md Salim, state secretary of the West Bengal unit of the CPI(M) is trying his luck at Murshidabad parliamentary constituency.
One of the chief initiators from the Left to cobble together an alliance with Congress, Salim is the a prominent face of the INDIA coalition. Murshidabad happens to be a constituency dominated by minority populace.
Won by a Trinamool Congress candidate in 2019 Lok Sabha election, the constituency has been earmarked for the CPI(M)'s state secretary as it had once been within the Congress's area of influence. In fact, PCC chief and five time MP from Behrampore Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has pulled out all stops to ensure Salim's victory. Adhir is the candidate in the adjoining constituency Berhampore which goes to the polls on May 13 in the fourth phase. The state Congress president has asked the Congress workers to work for the CPI(M) state secretary. Joint processions are also being organized in Murshidabad.
Abu Taher Khan the sitting MP of Trinamool Congress in Murshidabad takes on the nominee of the Congress-CPI(M) Md. Salim and both sides are aware that they represent high stakes. It is upto Khan to prove right his party supremo Mamata Banerjee's contention that INDIA coalition sans TMC has no support base in West Bengal.
Banerjee had offered two seats to Congress in the state already held by the state. The Congress initially demanded 12 seats but later brought it down to six. But Mamata Banerjee got annoyed at the handling of the alliance by the Congress leaders and declared that TMC will go alone contesting all 42 seats in the state. Now for TMC supremo, the retaining of Murshidabad seat has become a prestige issue.
TMC is banking on the minority votes and the image of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee among the villagers. CPI(M) candidate is depending on the split of the minority vote in favour of Salim and the organizational backing of the Congress. It all depends how the majority Muslim voters behave on the polling day. CPI(M) has no member to Lok Sabha from West Bengal now. The party, despite its organizational weaknesses, is making all efforts to organize voters in favour of its topmost leader in the state.
Jangipur made its presence felt in the country's political landscape as the constituency where Pranab Mukherjee won his first Lok Sabha victory. Though BJP stood second by vote count in 2019 elections, it is not a cause of worry to Khalilur Rahman the sitting TMC MP who has been renominated to retain the seat.
Rahman, a beedi baron is on his toes owing to the undercurrent which can be traced to the business in which he has prospered over the years. Congress nominee, Murtaza Hossain is stated to be Rahman's principal rival in the poll battle of May 7.
The Trinamool nominee will be hard put to explain why beedi workers are yet not getting a raise despite TMC's unofficial number two Abhishek Banerjee asking Rahman to ensure it. Rahman is banking on Lakshmir Bhander scheme of the CM to make up for this drawback as nearly 80 per cent of the beedi workers are women.
At the moment, Rahman is between a pincer attack though it emanates from his own party, Trinamool Congress itself. Though Sagardighi Congress legislator Byron Biswas has defected to TMC, his father Babar Biswas a leading businessman in beedi industry is stated to be backing his nephew, Asadul Sheikh contesting as an independent.
Though the independent nominee's vote share is unlikely to be huge, it may turn out to be crucial in a close contest. On the other hand, Indian Secular Front (ISF) has fielded Shahjahan Biswas the elder brother of TMC's legislator from Suti, Imani Biswas.
Naushad Siddiqui, the sole ISF legislator in the state Assembly has campaigned for Biswas. However, if Suti does not give a substantial lead to the TMC nominee or he trails there, the local legislator will have a lot to answer for and his candidature for 2026 Assembly polls will be on the line.
Contesting at panchayat level, the nomination in Lok Sabha has been a a sort of quantum leap for Congress nominee, Murtaza Hossain. The CPI(M) leadership and rank file are campaigning for him and trying to ensure there is no division of muslim votes.
The BJP leadership replacing 2019 Lok Sabha nominee Mafuza Khatun by Dhananjay Biswas seems to have taken the wind off the saffron ship's sails. As things stand now, it is a contest between the TMC and Congress especially in the absence of a Modi wave in the state.
The Congress badly needs another poll triumph in Malda (South) where Isha Khan Chowdhury is contesting from what is indeed a family bastion. Nephew of legendary Congress leader, ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury, he is being supported by the CPI(M) organization.
Yet at stake is the magic of residents Kotwalipalace where A B A Khan Chowdhury (widely known as Barkatsaheb) breathed his last. Together with Behrampur, this was the only constituency which Congress managed to retain in the previous Lok Sabha elections.
If Isha Khan's father, A H Khan Chowdhury won five years ago, he seeks to pass on the baton to his son. It is unlikely to be a smooth affair as TMC nominee Shahnawaz Ali Raihan is highlighting his party and its supremo Mamata Banerjee's work for the rural people in the district.
Indeed Raihan has come a long way from pursuing his doctoral thesis at Oxford University to the heat and dust of an election campaign in Malda. But having campaigned against NRC, CAA and Batla House encounter, he is no stranger in politics. He is young and has been able to mobilise a big chunk of local youth in his campaign.
Widely known as “Nirbhaya didi” as she had once headed a committee set up by the Union government in the national Capital after the Nirbhaya incident shook the country.BJP candidate Srirupa Mitra Chowdury is presently an MLA from Englishbazar. She is well known in the Malda north constituency which was won by the BJP nominee Khagen Murmu in 2019 elections.
Preventing movement of migrants out of Malda, face off between BSF personnel and local people and infiltration have remained burning issues over the years. If a major job creation drive by late Ghani Khan Chowdhury had given his party a leg up in successive elections, it remains to be seen if his party nominee can reap the dividend of the old glory or is elbowed aside by the TMC nominee. Prasun Mukherjee or BJP's Chowdhury.
With Murmu's victory margin being 84,000 votes in 2019 elections, the Congress nominee Murtaza Alam feels he is sure to win the seat. But Prasun Bandopadhyay, a former IPS who happens to be the TMC nominee is banking on TMC organization in assembly seats in Malda (north).
There will be a close contest between BJP and TMC at Gajol, Habibpur and Malda while Congress nominee will take on BJP in the rest of the seats.
TMC nominee is pointing out that the problem of Ganga erosion has not been tackled by previous winners. It remains a challenge to the BJP leadership to retain its influence in this minority dominated constituency of Malda north. (IPA Service)
