Mamata Banerjee with Abdul Khalek at Jalalpur. Picture by Surajit Roy

Chanchol (Malda), April 9: The Trinamul Congress lost the venue to the Congress, but its chief was determined not to let the “CPM stooge” go unchallenged.

Mamata Banerjee was here today to campaign for her party’s candidate for the Kharba by-election, the same day and time chosen by Pradesh Congress Committee president Priya Ranjan Das Munshi to address a rally at Kalambagan, a few kilometres away.

The venue of the Congress gathering had been a bone of contention with Trinamul alleging that the district administration had favoured Das Munshi’s party, although it had applied for it earlier. The administration had argued that Trinamul had not taken the permission of the owner of the grounds. Trinamul, however, was determined to hold the rally the same day, although it was forced to shift its venue.

Thousands of people, majority of them women, thronged the rallies held in Jalalpur and Asahpur where Mamata addressed the crowds.

In Kalambagan, Das Munshi spurred his supporters to vote for Asif Mehboob in an election necessitated by the death of his father Mahabubul Haque in October.

“The Congress is the CPM’s stooge. If the Congress candidate wins, it is a victory for the CPM,” Mamata said at the meeting held in the Jamalpur school grounds. She said Trinamul would maintain equal distance from the Congress and the BJP while fighting for her candidate, Abdul Khalek.

Anima Saha, a housewife, said she walked four kilometres from her village to catch a glimpse of Mamata. “She is a powerful woman and since I have heard so much about her, I wanted to see her,” she said.

At the Kalambagan meeting, Das Munshi said the Congress candidate was best suited for the development of the area. “I have not come here to chastise anyone, but Mamata should not have fielded a candidate and divided the anti-Left vote. The late Mahabubul Haque visited her hunger strike site in Calcutta last year after the Nandigram killings, as a Congress MLA and this is how the departed is being rewarded,” Das Munshi said.

The Union minister said it was his duty to look into the overall development of Malda. “Barkatda (the late Congress patriarch A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury) had a vision about his district and today I am going to see to it that it is fulfilled,” Das Munshi said.

In the past 30 years the state government had done nothing for the development of the Chanchol subdivision, the PCC chief said. “I am sure that Asif, who is a graduate from Visva-Bharati, will do a lot for his constituency,” he said.

Belal Sheikh, a farmer, said with Trinamul fielding a candidate it will be a tough fight for the Congress.

“Asif is a good and strong candidate and he should win, although it is difficult to predict the result this time,” the farmer said.