The Congress has fielded a leader who quit Trinamul barely three weeks back in Kaliaganj — the ancestral place of late Congress leader Priya Ranjan Das Munshi in North Dinajpur district.

Prabhash Sarkar, who was the working president of Trinamul in the Kaliaganj block and walked out of Mamata Banerjee’s party hardly a month ago, has been declared as the Congress candidate in the seat.

The decision hasn’t, however, gone down well with a section of Congress leaders in the district who feel that fielding Sarkar can send a wrong message to Congress and Left supporters of the Assembly constituency.

“It is unfortunate that our party could not find a Congress leader or worker who had been with us for years and is not a defector or a new entrant even in a place like Kaliaganj that had bred a leader like Priya Ranjan Das Munshi. It is a bitter truth but we have to admit that it raises a question over the Congress’ support base in Kaliaganj. It is high time that state leaders focus on this constituency to revive our support base,” said a senior Congress leader in Raiganj.

Sources said as the Congress had started scouting for candidates, it could not find anybody who was ready to contest from Kaliaganj.

Eventually, the district and block leaders could zero in on Sarkar, a schoolteacher.

Sarkar has said he hails from a Congress family. “My father had been a panchayat member of the Congress for 15 years. I was also with the Congress and had joined Trinamul in 2014. Now, I am back at home and have severed all my ties with Trinamul. The party has fielded me as the candidate in Kaliaganj and I am putting all my efforts,” he said.

Pabitra Chanda, a vice-president of North Dinajpur district Congress, tried to put up a brave face.

“It is wrong to perceive the Congress has weakened in Kaliaganj. Prabhash Sarkar has been selected as a candidate because we feel he can give a better contest to our contenders,” he said.

In the 2006, 2011 and 2016 Assembly elections, Pramath Nath Roy of the Congress had won Kaliaganj.

After Roy had died in 2018, a bypoll was held in 2019 and Trinamul won Kaliaganj for the first time. The Congress finished third in the bypoll.

“The defeat came as a jolt for the Congress and many walked out of the party in Kaliaganj. The decision to field a former Trinamul leader has exposed the Congress’s pitiable organisational strength in the seat,” said an observer.

In Malda, over 200 Congress supporters reached Kotowali, the ancestral house of the Khan Choudhury family, on the outskirts of the district headquarter, and held a demonstration. They were demanding a change in the candidate declared by the party in the Ratua Assembly seat.

Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, the district Congress chief and Malda south MP or Isha Khan Choudhury, his son and an MLA, did not meet the protesters. The protesters have threatened to resume their movement if their demands are not met, said sources.

BJP showcause

The North Dinajpur BJP leadership has showcaused six conveners, asking them to explain within three days what led to the ransacking of party offices of the district.

Last week, after the BJP had announced its list of candidates, there were protests across the district by a section of supporters who wanted that some of the candidates be changed. They had even accused Raiganj MP and Union minister of state Debasree Chaudhuri of indulging in corruption while distributing tickets and had even ransacked the district office.

Additional reporting by Soumya De Sarkar in Malda