‘Sujapur Assembly constituency in South Malda to play a crucial role this polls’
Malda: Sujapur Assembly constituency in South Malda Lok Sabha constituency is going to play a crucial role in deciding the fate of the three candidates locking horns in that seat.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC), would be delighted if there is a rerun of the performance of the 2021 Assembly polls. After a series of 15 wins for Congress, including 2 by-elections in the seat from 1962, TMC managed to turn the tables and won the seat with a landslide margin of over 1 lakh 30 thousand votes. Congress, on the other hand, will surely be putting extra effort to regain their bastion. BJP is banking on cross-voting between TMC and Congress to act in favour of the BJP.
Sujapur Assembly constituency with a voter strength of 265469 is a minority community-dominated electoral
segment. The election in this area had always been won by the Congress since 1962 after the first term of it’s inception in 1957.
Late ABA Ghanikhan Chowdhury, iconic leader of Congress from Malda, remained the MLA from here 5 times in a row from 1967 to 1982. Later on, Chowdhury’s family members continued the winning trail. Isha Khan Chowdhury, the nephew of Ghani Khan, was the last Congress MLA from 2016 to 2021 till Muhammad Abdul Ghani, a retired judge of the Calcutta High Court, claimed it from him in a landslide win for the TMC in the 2021 Assembly polls.
This gigantic lead that TMC managed to produce is of very much importance for the poll battle. In 2019 there was a neck-to-neck fight between Congress and BJP. Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury, brother of Ghani Khan Chowdhury, with 444270 votes won the seat from Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury of BJP with 436048 votes and TMC also secured 351353 votes. As the winning margin was a meagre 8 thousand nearly, the poll in Sujapur can be a deciding factor, feel political observers.
In other Assembly constituencies of this seat, TMC had increased their vote percentage remarkably in 2021 Assembly polls compared to the Parliamentary elections in 2019.
This time Congress has fielded Isha Khan Chowdhury, BJP Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury and TMC has given the ticket to Shahnawaz Ali Raihan. The poll battle at a glance seems to be evenly poised among the candidates but the enormous voting in favour of TMC in 2021 gives Raihan a fair bit of chance to bag the seat if the advantage is retained by the party at all.
Khan Chowdhury said: “Malda is all about Congress. TMC could mislead the people in 2021. The BJP and TMC scared the people and misled them over the CAA and NRC issues. During the Nyay Yatra of Shri Rahul Gandhi we could see the spontaneous support of the people in Malda. I can safely assume that Congress will regain the seat.”
Abdur Rahim Boxi, district president of TMC, said: “We are working to retain the leads in all Assembly constituencies of Malda. Obviously, Sujapur is very important for us.”
