Malda, April 14: The fight for the Assembly seat of Sujapur is within the family.
Abu Naser Khan Choudhury, who is 81 years old, is pitted against nephew, Isha Khan Choudhury, 44.
The former, a sitting MLA who won on a Congress ticket in 2011, is now the Trinamul candidate from Sujapur. Isha, the sitting MLA from Baishnabnagar, is contesting as the Congress-Left alliance candidate from the same seat.
Back in Kotwali, as the clock ticks towards seven in the morning, the opponents are readying for their respective campaigns.
Isha's father and the South Malda Congress MP, Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, sits on the ground floor porch of the sprawling Kotwali building with a couple of aides, sipping tea.
"My brother has been consorting with criminals and using their help to win the elections. The situation in Sujapur, that comprises the notorious Kaliachak area, is very volatile. We from the Congress have been constantly pointing out the law and order problems to the police and the administration. However, the ruling party is standing in the way of bringing these criminals to book. Kaliachak has become a hotbed of fake currency racket and illegal opium cultivation," Abu Hasem says.
Soon, Isha emerges dressed in kurta and churidar, a Congress tri-coloured scarf draped around his shoulders. He walks up to his father to bid him goodbye before he sets off for the campaign.
"I am campaigning door-to-door, on foot. I have to reach the people and convince them to vote for the Congress and not for someone who has betrayed the party in a seat that was A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury's turf and a proven Congress stronghold. People are besieged by criminals that have now all come together under the shelter of the ruling party. Trinamul was forced to expel the notorious Bakul Shiekh of Kaliachak to try and do some kind of damage control. But all that has not changed the situation much," Isha says before leaving Kotwali.
In an outer wing of the Kotwali building, there is a separate gate that leads to the residence of Abu Naser Khan Choudhury. "Lebuda (Abu Naser) is having breakfast. You will have to wait," says an aide. An SUV adorned with Trinamul flags and festoons waits in the driveway.
Abu Naser soon emerges, wearing white kurta-pyjama, a Trinamul symbol pinned on his Jawahar coat.
"The Congress has failed my brother, Ghani Khan. Those that followed him did nothing for Malda. I left my Swiss citizenship and came to Malda in 2009 to serve the people. But the Congress ignored me. I should have contested as an MP. Also, instead of making me the district president of the Congress, the post went to that girl (Mausam)," Abu Naser says ruefully.
Abu Naser explains his joining Trinamul. "You see, I am an educationist, having taught in England. After I returned to India, I saw that the only development that was going on came after Mamata came to power. Colleges, universities, hospitals, she has done a lot. She had been approaching me for my experience and I agreed," the Trinamul candidate says.
About 20km from Kotwali, the Sujapur More on NH34 is a traffic killer. The highway is being widened and trucks, buses and cars vie with each other to get past the two-kilometre stretch bringing everything to a grinding halt. Streams of students on foot and on bicycles cross the stretch to go to the madarsas located along the highway. More than 90 per cent of the population in Sujapur is Muslim.
About 4km south of Sujapur More is Sukdevpur, the stronghold of Bakul Sheikh. A small metalled road leads to his house located very close to an ICDS centre.
Not a single flag or banner can be seen in the area. Residents of the area say that people are scared to put banners and posters after Bakul Sheikh was suspended by Trinamul for anti-party activities and for hobnobbing with criminals.
"You better not click photographs, Bakul's men are watching you," says a man passing by on a bicycle. Two youths on a motorbike stop near the ICDS centre. "Reporter, right?" they ask before riding away.
Naubahar Bibi, Bakul's mother, emerges from the garishly-painted green and yellow two-storeyed building. "My son has gone to a construction site in UP with his labourers. He has done a lot for the area and its people but the party did not see that," she says.
Locals refuse comment on the situation. A youth, bold enough to speak, says people are fed up with the criminals in the area.
"All criminals have come under one roof - Trinamul. My niece was abducted at gunpoint by a criminal while returning from school and he sent her back home after marrying her. There are numerous such incidents that you can hear. For the past four years, opium cultivation has increased by leaps and bounds and criminals from states like Bihar and UP are coming here to do the illegal business," he said.
Bakul, who was the anchal president of Trinamul in the Jadupur area of Kaliachak, apparently still wields clout, despite not being around.
"Bakul controls over 20,000 votes and we feel he will work against Trinamul for being kicked out of the party after working for the past four years to consolidate the party's hold in the area. In any case, the voters of Kaliachak recognise the Congress symbol. It is a safe seat for Isha," says a resident.
But when the elections are done and dusted, Sujapur will remain with Kotwali.
