Just as the announcement was made that the visit of Congress general Secretary Rahul Gandhi to Farakka in West Bengal's Murshidabad district was cancelled, a series of processions started arriving at the grounds where his election rally was to have been held. Mr. Gandhi, who was on an election tour of parts of north Bengal and Murshidabad district, had to cancel his visit to Farakka because of bad weather forcing alterations in his itinerary.
Disappointment
Samir Mondal was among a group of Youth Congress supporters, who had come from Arjunpur village about 12 km away, just to see Mr. Gandhi. “We had seen the news that there may be a delay in his arrival because of bad weather in north Bengal, but we had hoped that he will make it,” he said.
Disappointed, many of those who had gathered just to catch a glimpse of Mr. Gandhi started returning home. A majority stayed back, hoping that there may be yet another change of plans. Many of the people were particularly offended because Mr. Gandhi made it to a rally at Domkal in the same district that was scheduled to be held later.
While the event turned out to be a disappointment, the local leadership of the party tried to make the best of a bad situation and clarified rumours about certain rebel candidates.
The three-time MLA from Farakka, Moin-ul-Haq, is contesting the Assembly election on a Congress ticket. However, another local Congress leader, Sanu Shiek, has filed his nomination as an Independent candidate and rumours have been doing the rounds that Mr. Sheik's candidature is backed by party's Behrampore MP, Adhir Choudhury.
Rebel candidates are defying the terms of the Congress' alliance with the Trinamool Congress and openly extending support to former Congress leaders in the four constituencies that the Trinamool is contesting. But, Mr. Choudhury on Thursday unequivocally expressed his support for Mr. Moin-ul-Haq terming the Independent candidates “traitors of the party.”
