WEST BENGAL ASSEMBLY ELECTION

Aggrieved NCP leader supports rebel Congress candidate

The outgoing Congress MLA of Sitai Dr Fazle Haque failed to get approval from his party to contest from Dinhata segment. The Trinamul Congress gifted the seat to the Nationalist Congress Party. In this context, Dr Haque decided to contest from Dinhata as an independent candidate. He submitted three nomination papers including one as a NCP candidate.

On the otherhand, the NCP has fielded its state unit president Mr Amiyo Sarkar as its candidate. A secretary of the party, Mr Dhirendra Nath Das too submitted nomination.

At the end, Dr Haque remains as an independent only as he failed to get approval from the NCP. Mr Das too failed to convince his party over his own candidature and withdrew his candidature on Monday.

Now, an aggrieved Mr Das joined hands with Dr Haque and announced his support to the veteran Congress leader.

Criticising the NCP leadership, Mr Das said the people of Dinhata want a candidate against the Left Front candidate and Dr Haque is the candidate of the stature that can fight against the LF candidate. "We will support him at Dinhata as Mr Amiyo Sarkar is an out comer here", he said.

Dr Haque claimed that he might be able to enjoy support from a large section of local leaders and supporters of the Congress, the Trinamul Congress, the NCP, the Forward Bloc, the CPI-M and some other parties.

On the otherhand, the official NCP candidate Mr Amiyo Sarkar said Mr Das is no more a man of the NCP. Nothing can be changed by any claim made by him. The voters of Dinhata will vote for the NCP candidate as Ms Mamata Banerjee allotted the seat to them. "The people of Dinhata know it well that Ms Banerjee sent me to contest from this seat. We must honour her wish", he added.

It may be mentioned here that Dinhata was the lone Trinamul seat in North Bengal that it won in 2006 election. This time the Trinamul Congress gifted the seat to the NCP replacing its outgoing MLA Mr Ashok Mandal.