Season change: Ticket for Mousam

DANCE Of DEMOCRACY
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Malda: Daluda, Lebuda and Mousam — when it comes to looking for leaders, Malda Congress cannot look beyond Barkatda’s family. This time was supposed to be no different. Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, or Daluda, was contesting from Malda South, niece Mousam had won the Sujapur Assembly bypoll. So, how could brother Naser Khan, or Lebuda, be left out? But the Congress high command had other plans. Within a day of district Congress president Hasem announcing Naser’s name publicly for the Malda North constituency, party bosses in Delhi made it clear that Mousam Noor would contest from the newly created seat. The fallout was obvious at Kotwali. “I have been stabbed in the back. A section of Congress leaders has ditched me after promising me a ticket. How dare they do that without consulting the district Congress president?” said a fuming Lebuda, who was so desperate that he enrolled himself as a voter from English Bazar despite being a Swiss citizen. Lebuda may have thought nothing could come in his way, given his family background. “The leaders told me I needed to submit the papers from the Swiss government before filing my nomination. Pranab Mukherjee told us not to worry and said it was his headache to get me through. Relying on this assurance, we came back. I have the papers from the Swiss government,” he said. Naser was so upset that he refused to take part in Mousam’s poll campaign. Mousam happens to be his niece and the daughter of sister Ruby Noor. “Why should I seek votes in her favour? Let Mousam garner support from her voters,” said Abu Naser Khan Choudhury. Sensing the mood in her family, Mousam came down to Kolkata to meet Pradesh Congress leaders and discuss ways to sort out the tricky family problem. “AICC has given me the ticket. I will fight the elections following in the footsteps of my uncle, ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury,” Mousam said. “If elected, I’ll focus on youth issues. I had never hoped I would be selected, but as there was a technical problem with my uncle’s nomination, the party chose me.” Daluda is a little upset. “We were told by Pranabda that Lebuda would be the candidate and we believed him. But his candidature may have been denied because of technical problems,” said Daluda. However, his explanation failed to satisfy followers, who even blocked Hasem’s car while he was out campaigning. Kotwali loyalists also took the high command decision as a setback. Only on Wednesday, they had garlanded Lebuda and taken him on a roadshow soon after Daluda announced his candidature. The scene started changing from Wednesday evening when the AICC took exception to Daluda’s announcing his brother’s name without consulting the Delhi bosses. Worse, the requisite papers regarding Naser’s citizenship had not reached AICC. K Keshav Rao, AICC observer for West Bengal Pradesh Congress, reportedly reacted sharply to this.