Even as local Congressmen dragged their feet over contesting the parliamentary elections from Bengal, the party had decided to field former India captain Md Azharuddin from the State.
The stylish batsman is likely to contest from Basirhat, Krishnagar or Uluberia seat, PCC president Adhir Chowdhury said. On whether the former star cricketer had agreed to contest from Bengal where the Congress is not among the strongest parties, Chowdhury said that the Azharuddin had agreed to contest from Bengal.
“He has agreed to contest from Bengal but the place has not yet been decided. He will be given choices and may contest from any of the seats like Basirhat, Uluberia or Krishnagar. let us see from which place he contests. Finding a right constituency will not be an issue for him,” said the junior Railway Minister.
Apart from Malda and Murshidabad, the Congress has a good presence in all these areas. While Basirhat is a North 24 Parganas town bordering Bangladesh, Krishnagar is in Nadia and Uluberia is in Howrah district. Azharuddin is a sitting MP from Moradabad seat in UP.
On whether he could be fielded from places like Murshidabad or Malda where the Congress is far stronger a senior PCC leader said there were less chances of he being fielded from these places as “we already have sitting MPs who sill contest from these constituencies.” Meanwhile with opinion polls projecting Congress’ vote share sliding to just around 6 per cent, half than that of the BJP, a number of senior Pradesh Congress leaders had expressed their unwillingness to contest the coming polls.
Among those who have expressed their unwillingness to contest are former PCC presidents Mamas Bhunia and Pradip Bhattacharya. “I am a member of the Congress’ campaign committee and it will be difficult for me to concentrate on one seat while discharging the other duty so it will be unadvisable for me to file nomination,” Bhunia also a sitting MlA from West Midnapore said.
When contacted Bhattacharya said he would not contest the polls. “I have been in the fray for a long time and it is time we give chances to the younger faces. let the younger people come forward and compete,” said Bhattacharya a sitting Rajya Sabha member.
On reluctance of the leaders to contest, Chowdhury said, “You cannot force a person to fight elections. My view was that we should put the best foot forward and then see what happens. Now if someone does not want to contest then we have to find out an alternative.”
Insiders said the Congress’ main goal was to make things harder for the Trinamool Congress in the elections. This particularly after reports of secret parleys between the two parties suggested that the Trinamool had offered the Congress only two seats in Bengal if there was an alliance. Currently the Congress has six seats from the State; three in Murshidabad, two in Malda and one in Raiganj.