Trinamul Congress candidate for the Burdwan Durgapur Lok Sabha seat Kirti Azad was the lone warrior in the battlefield until the Congress nominated the party’s state youth president for the seat, today.
Azhar Mallik, son of a farmer of Kapsit village in Khandaghosh PS area in East Burdwan is the state youth Congress president. His native village falls under the Bishnupur Lok Sabha constituency. Azhar, according to the Congress, “Has been fielded for the seat as the alliance with the LF for the seat has failed to yield any effective outcome as yet.” In 2019, the CPM had fielded Abhas Roy Chowdhury for the seat who hardly could get 1.61 lakh votes and Congress candidate had managed to secure meagre 38,516 votes where BJP candidate Surinder Singh Ahluwalia won the seat by a thin margin of 2,439 votes against 17.33 lakh valid votes.
Azhar was offered to choose one among three seats by the party High Command – Balurghat, Diamond Harbour and Burdwan Durgapur. Azhar said, “I had accepted the third choice, which the Pradesh Congress president too had agreed.” The Congress leadership, initially had pushed the name of veteran leader Pradip Bhattacharya for the seat, the High Command however has shifted him to Kolkata-North seat.
The CPM district leadership, after Azhar’s candidature, only said: “We are not given any intimation about this development by our state headquarters as yet.”