West Bengal Assembly Election

Congress may take action against rebel MLA

Is the rebel Congress leader Dr Fazle Haque expects to be an official candidate of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)? With such a hope hidden in his heart he submitted a nomination as a NCP candidate on Thursday. He however filed two additional nominations as independent candidate.

Dr Fazle Haque is a veteran Congress leader. He is an AICC member too. Once he was in the ministry of the then chief minister Siddhartha Sankar Ray. In the Assembly election of 2006 he won from Sitai. This time he was willing to contest from Dinhata, as the Sitai seat gone reserved. Failing to get the ticket from his party he decided to contest as an independent candidate with support of a large section of aggrieved Congress supporters and Trinamul Congress supporters. The Youth Congress also came out to support him. Meanwhile the Trinamul Congress gifted the Dinhata seat to its ally NCP. Two separate claimants of that party already filed nomination papers there. On Thursday, Mr Haque submitted three nominations – two as independent candidates and one as a NCP candidate.

Mr Haque said, he knows that his membership from the AICC got cancelled soon after filing of the nomination paper as independent candidate as his membership from the party gets suspended for six years. He also said that if the NCP allots him its Clock symbol he will contest as a NCP candidate. Otherwise he will contest as an independent as he decided earlier.

On the otherhand, PCC president Dr Manas Bhuiyan told over phone that he was yet to get reports about the candidature of Mr Haque. "We will wait till withdrawal of the nomination papers. If he stays in the poll fray as a candidate then measures may be taken against him", he added. District Congress leadership said as Mr Haque is an AICC member they cannot take any action against him. It is upto the high command, they clarified.