Pranab Mukherjee (left) with Harishchandrapur candidate Mustak Alam on Wednesday. (Surajit Roy)

Malda, April 13: Pranab Mukherjee today campaigned for Malda district Congress president’s son Isha Khan Chowdhury, giving his stamp of approval to the dynasty politics and highlighting the need to vote for Congress-Trinamul Congress alliance to dislodge the Left from power.

The Union finance minister called Isha his “nephew” and urged people to fulfil the dream of the late A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury.

“Isha is my brother’s son, my nephew. I had been constantly encouraging Dalubabu (Abu Hashem Khan Chowdhury, the Malda South MP) to let his son and my nephew, Isha, contest the polls. I am happy that he has been fielded in Baisnabnagar,” Mukherjee told journalists after a workers’ meeting at Harishchandrapur, where he started his campaign in Malda district today.

Like Abu Hashem’s son, Pranab’s son, Abhijit, is also contesting an election for the first time. He has been fielded in Birbhum’s Nalhati.

Mukherjee held meetings in Ratua, Sujapur and Baisnabnagar, too.

The Congress leader urged party workers to ensure that only the alliance candidates got the votes. “For the first time after 1977, we have been able to defeat the Left Front in the last Lok Sabha elections. This has come as a great encouragement and if the alliance stands firm, we will certainly defeat the Left Front. Neither us (Congress) nor Mamata could topple the Left Front in 2006 by going it alone,” Mukherjee said.

The Congress-Trinamul alliance won in 26 of the 42 seats in Bengal in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and 16 went to the Left Front. In 2004, there was no tie-up between the Congress and Trinamul and the Left bagged 35 seats.

Mukherjee also took the opportunity to tell the voters about Ghani Khan’s contribution. “It was Barkatda who had said only an alliance of anti-Left forces could hurt the CPM. I am happy today that Barkatda’s dream is going to be realised. However, there are still some problems in that regard,” he said.

Mukherjee attributed the problems to the resentment among Congress workers, many of whom had been denied tickets to contest the polls. “But I have to thank these workers for their sacrifices and co-operation. We have tied up with Trinamul with one goal, to defeat the Left.”