Malda’s Sujapur has another “Ghani” in the electoral fray after close to four-and-a-half decades.

Abdul Ghani, a former Calcutta High Court judge, is the Trinamul Congress’s candidate for Sujapur, which votes in the last phase on April 29. Abdul Ghani will be taking on the Congress’s Isha Khan Choudhury, the nephew of the late A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury, the political stalwart whose legacy is still palpable in Malda.

Sujapur, barely 12km from district headquarters Englishbazar, had been the fief of Ghani Khan, who represented the seat for five terms from 1967 to 1977, including the two untimely elections in 1969 and 1971. Since 1967, Sujapur has always elected a Congress candidate, including members of Ghani Khan’s family.

Abdul Ghani, the Trinamul candidate, had also been the chairman of the state wakf board. He studied in London and is the descendent of an erstwhile affluent zamindar family in Englishbazar.

ABA Ghani Khan Choudhuri. File picture

“The Congress has won from Sujapur for decades but has failed to bring real change here. I am a son of the soil and I feel that families who have worked as migrant labourers for generations want jobs here. In the past 10 years, there have been massive changes in the state and if development is the parameter, Mamata Banerjee is an icon. People of Sujapur will stand with us this time,” Abdul Ghani said.

His namesake, the original Ghani, had a long and illustrious political career. Ghani Khan held key portfolios, including power and irrigation, in Siddhartha Shankar Roy’s cabinet between 1972 and 1977. In 1980, Ghani Khan, considered among the few trusted lieutenants of Indira Gandhi, was elected an MP from Malda.

Sujapur’s continued love for the Congress has flummoxed other parties and political pundits alike. Development has by and large eluded Sujapur, 90 per cent of whose voters are from the minority community.

The area is dotted with cheek-by-jowl houses and narrow lanes. Piles of plastic scrap articles are found dumped along National Highway 12. The area’s innumerable plastic crushing units — both legal and illegal — have only increased pollution levels.

Isha Khan, the sitting MLA, said: “There is no denying that Sujapur cannot forget my uncle, Ghani Khan Choudhury. My uncle always considered Sujapur residents his close relatives. The bond is eternal and we believe the tradition of electing the Congress will continue.”