Malda, March 30: The Malda CPM has started a campaign on the chat service WhatsApp in Englishbazar to tell voters they must not vote for the “fake” Nihar Ghosh.

The alliance is backing Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, who is known in the area as Nihar Ghosh. But there is another Nihar Ghosh in the fray, a schoolteacher who is also an Independent. 

The Congress and the Left suspect that Trinamul minister Krishnendu Chowdhury fielded the schoolteacher to confuse voters. The Trinamul leader has rubbished the charge.

The photograph of the candidate, the name and the party symbol are the three things voters get to see while pressing the EVM button. 

As both Nihars are Independents, their names will not be accompanied by a party symbol easily recognisable to voters. Independents will get to choose their symbols on April 2, a day after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations. 

Alliance candidate Ghosh has been a Left-supported councillor in Englishbazar since 2005. Krishnendu is the Trinamul candidate from Englishbazar. “The Trinamul candidate is scared he will lose. That is why the party has fielded an Independent with a name the same as our candidate’s. It is a blatant attempt to confuse voters,” said district CPM secretary Ambar Mitra.

“We have started a campaign on WhatsApp about who the real Nihar Ghosh is and who is the fake,” Mitra said. 

When asked if he was fielded by Trinamul to confuse voters, teacher Nihar Ghosh, who is making his debut in electoral politics, said it was his “democratic right” to contest.

Mitra said: “Those who accompanied the other Nihar Ghosh when he went to file his nomination yesterday are close to Krishnendu. His (Ghosh’s) agent is Debabrata Saha, Krishnendu’s associate.” 

Krishnendu said he did not think the Congress-Left alliance was his “worthy opponent”. “They could not field anyone against me, so they are backing an Independent. If a person with the same name is contesting, he has every right to,” he said.