South Malda sees revival of Ghanikhan magic

Malda: The South Malda Parliamentary Constituency (PC) has witnessed the revived Ghanikhan magic as Isha Khan Chowdhury, nephew of iconic Congress leader of Malda late Ghanikhan Chowdhury, managed to have a decent lead over his nearest rival, Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury, of BJP by over 1,20,000 votes till the time of filing this report.

The trend also served a major setback to Mitra Choudhury who has been a fervent aspirant to grab the seat after losing it by a meagre margin of almost 8,000 votes in 2019. TMC retained the third spot in this seat despite winning all the Assembly segments falling under the constituency except English Bazar in the Assembly elections in 2021. Mitra Choudhury bagged 444027 votes while Shahnawaz Ali Raihan of TMC has managed to secure 301026 votes. The 8 Maldaha Dakshin (South Malda) PC is dominated by the minority community having over 55 per cent of population. After a series of 15 wins for Congress, including 2 by-elections in the Sujapur Assembly segment from 1962, TMC’s Abdul Ghani managed to turn the table and won the seat with a huge margin of over 1,30,000 votes to Isha Khan Chowdhury. This incident was then marked as the death knell to the magic of Ghanikhan Chowdhury but the general elections 2024 can easily be noted as its revival for none could assume this much lead of the Congress candidate in advance. Isha Khan Chowdhury, the lone Congress Candidate on winning row in Bengal, seemed to have managed the support of minority community by large in the name of Khan Chowdhury sentiment and to a good extent of other votes adverse to BJP and its candidate in the seat.

It will also be a matter of introspection for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for not being able to secure the votes from females under the scheme of Lakshmir Bhandar because women voters in large turned out to booths this time, eventually more than men in all the Assembly segments under this PC.