"Public is with us: Congress' Malda South candidate exudes confidence in party victory in both South and North Malda

Malda (West Bengal) [India], April 29 (ANI): Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Malda South seat, Isha Khan Chaudhury on Monday expressed confidence that the public's support will lead to a Congress victory in both South and North Malda in the upcoming elections.
"I am standing from South Malda. The situation is improving every day... The voters are making a tactical decision... In 2021, the Congress in the entire West Bengal lost all its MLA seats... Every time an election comes, the BJP starts talking about NRC and CAA, when the election is over, it dies down. The talk about NRC and CAA dies down. The public has become very wary and thinks now that it's not a serious issue. So they're voting freely from their heart now so that there's no fear factor this time... We think that the public is with us, that the Congress will get through in South Malda and hopefully in North Malda also," he told ANI
Congress' Isha Khan Choudhury will be fighting against BJP's Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury and TMC's Shanawaz Ali Rehan for the Malda South Lok Sabha seat.
Malda South Lok Sabha constituency consists of seven assembly segments Manikcha, English Bazar, Mothabar, Sujapur, Baishnab Nagar, Farakka, and Samserganj. Malda South will vote on May 7 in the third phase.
Earlier, West Bengal BJP chief and Lok Sabha candidate from Balurghat, Sukanta Majumdar, exuded confidence that BJP will win the South Malda seat with a great margin.
"We won almost all seats in North Bengal last time, except South Malda. This time we will win all the seats and we will win the Malda South seat with a great margin. Here, the BJP will win 100 per cent in North Bengal," he told ANI on Sunday.
Launching a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress, he said, "The public is calling Mamata Banerjee 'chor' 'chor' wherever she is going. On the other hand, PM Modi has been the prime minister of our country for many years but no one has raised fingers against him."
"People accused Mamata Banerjee's family of owning 35 plots in Kalighat. Neither TMC nor her family has commented regarding this, hence it is clear that they are the owners of these plots...," Majumdar further said.
West Bengal, which sends 42 MPs, to Parliament, is voting in all seven phases. Voting for phases one and two was held on April 19 and April 26, respectively. Polling for the remaining parliamentary constituencies will be conducted on May 4, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. The counting of votes will be done on June 4.
The incumbent MP from Malda South and Congress leader Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury (Dalu) has been winning the seat since 2009, but over the years the vote base has been narrowing. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Abu Hasem's victory margin over Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury was just 0.6 per cent.
BJP leader Khagen Murmu is the incumbent MP from Malda North and won with 509,524 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Mausam Noor from Trinamool Congress came in second with 425,236 votes. Isha Khan Choudhary from Congress was third with 305,270 votes.

In most of the constituencies in the state, the main fight is between the ruling Trinamool Congress and BJP.
Though the TMC is part of the INDIA bloc, it does not have a seat-sharing arrangement with the other parties in the alliance, like Congress and the Left parties in the state.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the TMC won 34 seats in the state, while the BJP had to settle for just 2 seats. The CPI (M) won 2 seats, while the Congress bagged 4.
However, the BJP came up with a much-improved showing in the 2019 polls, winning 18 seats against the TMC's 22. The Congress's tally dropped to just 2 seats, while the Left scored a blank. (ANI)