Once-powerful Trinamul leaders and former ministers Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury and Sabitri Mitra, candidates of Englishbazar and Manikchak in Malda, are using the 2021 polls to try and reclaim their position in the party with the district getting extra attention from Mamata Banerjee because of its demography.

“They were prominent Trinamul faces but these past four-five years, particularly after both lost the 2016 Assembly polls, they got sidelined,” said a party insider.

Mitra, who has many health issues, stayed away from party’s events. Choudhury was apparently upset with the rise of Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, who had defeated him as an Independent but later joined Trinamul. Choudhury also lost the chair of the civic chief of the Englishbazar municipality to Ghosh.

But as Assembly polls drew near, the party brought both the leaders to the forefront as part of Mamata’s strategy to put up a united fight in the district.

Choudhury was made the chairman of the district committee headed by Mausam Noor (the district president). Mitra was made the block president in Manikchak.

Trinamul candidate and former minister Sabitri Mitra interacts with people in Manikchak. Soumya De Sarkar

Also, as the Trinamul supremo announced the candidates, it was found that Choudhury had been fielded from Englishbazar, his old seat. Sitting MLA Ghosh was asked to contest from Chanchal. Mitra was fielded from Manikchak, her old turf.

“These decisions have bolstered the confidence of both these senior leaders as they felt the party supremo still has confidence in them. Earlier, we had never seen them campaign so extensively. This time they tried to reach out to every household, interacted elaborately with people and were benevolent in their approach, which was also rare,” said a district Trinamul leader.

In Malda, both Mitra and Ghosh are also known for regularly getting involved into squabbles on trifle issues with each other. Even Mamata has time and again reprimanded them in open for such acts.

“I always tried to deliver the responsibilities given to me by Didi. I worked hard day and night for Malda residents. I am familiar with them and this time, people will stand by me as we have to thwart BJP that has been trying to divide people in this district on religious lines,” said Choudhury, who is in his early 60s.

Unlike earlier years when they had to contest against Congress and the Left, their principal contenders are from the BJP that has played the polarisation card and disseminated the Hindutva narrative.

Malda is a district with around 55 per cent Muslim population, whose votes decide the results in around seven of 12 Assembly seats.

Choudhury’s key contender is yet another Choudhury — Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury of the BJP — who had contested from Malda South Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and secured a lead of over 94,000 votes in the Englishbazar Assembly segment.

For Mitra, the contest is no less tough. In the Manikchak Assembly segment, BJP was ahead by 34,000 votes in 2019. Gour Chandra Mandal, the sabhadhipati of Malda Zilla Parishad who recently did a turncoat and walked into the BJP, is pitted against her.

But the retired primary schoolteacher sounded confident. “It is the time to prove that Sabitri Mitra, the politician, is not yet finished. It is a struggle to uphold amity and peace in Malda,” she said.

An observer said both were tough seats, among the five on which the BJP had been focussing since 2019 after winning the Malda north Lok Sabha seat. “It would be interesting to see if these two old Mamata loyalists succeed in making a comeback.”