Pranab Mukherjee’s son faces challenge from new rivals in Jangipur

Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
Jangipur, April 21

Having won the last two elections (one was a by-election) by narrow margins, Congress candidate Abhijit Mukherjee, son of former President Pranab Mukherjee, is this time facing challenge in his constituency Jangipur from a new set of rivals.

Victory margin of Abhijit in the by-election held in Jangipur in 2012 after Pranab Mukherjee resigned from the seat having become the President was 2536 votes.

Abhijit again won in the General Election in 2014 and this time he got only about 8000 votes more than his nearest rival Muzaffar Hossain of the CPI(M) who was his main challenger in the 2012 by-election too.

With CPI(M) having lost much of its clout in Jangipur, TMC and BJP have emerged as the two new kids on the block threatening to topple Mukherjee’s applecart.

“I am hundred per cent hopeful about the victory — getting very good response from people”, says Mukherjee keeping a brave face.

He, however, complained about the “administrative head of the state” (read Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) “putting tremendous pressure on the local administration” to create hurdles for campaigning by him.

“Many of Mukherjee’s old associates have switched to the TMC. They include Raghunathganj Congress MLA Akhruzzaman, block president Mukti Prasad Dhar, former MLA Saurav Master and others,” says Subhasish Chakraborty, president of the BJP Jangipur town committee.

Abhjit, however, does not agree that he has been weakened by the desertions. “In a battle, so many soldiers die or disappear from the battlefield. Such things normally fail to change the outcome of the battle,” he said.

Kanai Mandal, CPI(M) MLA from Nabagram, and Asish Marjit, Congress MLA from Khargram, too, have defected to TMC.

The TMC had won Jangipur and Sagardighi seats in the assembly elections held in 2017.

With desertion by Akhruzzaman, Mandal and Marjit, five out of the seven assembly segments constituting the Lok Sabha constituency, thus, are controlled by TMC which has fielded Khalilur Rahman, a ‘beedi’ merchant, from Jangipur seat.

Only four out of the 11 candidates in fray in the Muslim-majority constituency are Hindus.

Abhijit is the most formidable among the Hindu candidates as two among the remaining three candidates are Independents and one is from the little known Purvanchal Janta Party (secular).

However, it is unlikely that Hindu voters of the constituency will back Mukherjee en masse.

Many of them will choose the BJP and vote for its candidate Mafuja Khatun.

“We are keeping a low profile now. But on the day of voting we are going to vote for the BJP”, confessions by a local resident A Sarkar summarises the feeling of large sections of Hindu voters of the area.

Similarly, many people, who are going by as TMC supporters, are expected to vote for the Congress taking advantage of the secrecy one finds inside the polling booth.

“The main challenge is to ensure free and fair polling,” says Ali, a Congress sympathiser masquerading as a TMC supporter.