In what could give further jolt to a moribund Congress in West Bengal, two of its MlAs have announced their joining the Trinamool Congress, ‘perhaps on Friday’ and albeit after the Rajya Sabha elections.
The two legislators are Abu Naser Khan Chowdhury and Sushil Roy. The former is the younger brother of late Malda patriarch ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury. He has been unhappy with the party leadership for appointing his niece and sitting North Malda MP Mausam Benazir Noor as the district Congress president.
Reports last coming in said, efforts made by the PCC leadership and AICC observer for West Bengal Shakeel Ahmed had failed with the two rebel MlAs sticking to their decisions. They could be given ministerial berths Trinamool sources said.
Naser’s announcement comes a day before the State goes to the Rajya Sabha elections for five seats. While the Trinamool has fielded four candidates the left has nominated one. While both the ruling outfit and the left are sure to win three and one seats respectively there will be contest for the fifth seat where
the Trinamool has fielded journalist Ahmed Hasan while the Congress is backing AS Malihabadi a sitting Independent MP.
The three Trinamool candidates sure to win are actor Mithun Chakraborty, painter Jogen Chowdhury, and businessman KD Singh. The lone left candidate and student leader Ritabrata Banerjee will also have not problem winning the poll. The contest will take place for the fifth seat.
The Congress has 38 votes while the left after voting for its own candidate will be left with 12. Another rebel Trinamool MlA Sikha Mitra is also likely to vote for Malihabadi. Together they can see the Congress-backed nominee through as the required number of first preference votes to be polled by each candidate is 49. Incidentally the Trinamool which will be left with 45 votes will fall short of four votes and a defection in the Congress and the left camp is essential for it to see its candidate through.
Apart from the Congress, the left Front might also suffer a defection of sorts with three of its MlAs going ‘traceless’ ahead of the left legislature Party meeting. “The Trinamool Congress has a hand in this,” said CPI(M) leader Rabin Deb adding the Front had lodged a ‘missing dairy’ with the Park Street Police Station.
While one of the ‘missing’ MlAs is from the Forward Bloc the other two belong to the RSP, sources said. In that case if the Congress loses two candidates and the left three then the ruling party would manage to scrape through.
The Congress had won 42 seats in 2011 Assembly elections. However, since then four of its MlAs have already defected to the Trinamool Congress. And the number of defections would go up to six on Friday. The left leader also alleged that the ruling outfit was ‘either giving threats or luring our MlAs with money.’