Malda, March 23: The Kharba Assembly by-elections on April 12 will see a straight fight between the Congress and the CPM, although the Trinamul Congress and the BJP are also in the fray.

The seat had fallen vacant after Congress MLA Mahababul Haque died of cancer on October 22 last year. He had defeated his nearest rival Anjumnara Bibi by a margin of little more than 10,000 votes in the 2005 polls. The CPM has fielded Anjumnara this time too.

But the Congress is divided over the nomination of Asif Mahababul, Haque’s son. Many of its leaders wanted to see Mohammed Sahid as the candidate.

“The district Congress had proposed my name but Priya Ranjan Das Munshi got Asif nominated. I have already lodged complaint with Sonia Gandhi,” said Sahid. Kharba is within Das Munshi’s Raiganj Lok Sabha segment.

In 2005, the Trinamul Congress had bagged 4.09 per cent votes from this constituency and had to forfeit its deposit. The same candidate, Abdul Khaleq, has been re-nominated this time.

The BJP, which did not field any candidate last time, is going it alone this year. General secretary of the state BJP Rahul Sinha blamed Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee for what he called “a repetition of the Balagarh blunder”.

The CPM had won because of a disunited Opposition in the Balagarh Assembly bypolls in December.

According to Sinha, the CPM will reap the benefits of the split in votes. Mamata is steering clear of the BJP and refused to enter into an understanding with the Congress.

Trinamul leader Babla Sarkar said Mamata would be camping at Kharba on April 8 and 9 to campaign for the party candidate.

A leader of the Das Munshi camp, Asit Bose, believes that his party is going to retain the seat “with a greater margin”. “Priyada will be camping here for 10 days before the elections,” Bose said.

CPM leader and food processing minister from the district Sailen Sarkar, however, feels that it would matter little if Das Munshi campaigns for his candidate. “Das Munshi is not Barkatda (the late Congress patriarch A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury),” Sarkar said.