Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhary To Contest On BJP Ticket From Maldaha Dakshin

BJP has given a ticket to Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury from South Malda (Maldaha Dakshin or Malda South) to contest for the 18th Lok Sabha election. The constituency will go through polling on May 7. Trinamool Congress has fielded Shanawaz Ali Raihan as its candidate from South Malda. However, Congress has yet to declare its candidate. In 2019, South Malda saw a triangular race in the constituency with a shrinking margin of victory.

Malda South Lok Sabha constituency consists of seven assembly segments; Manikcha, English Bazar, Mothabar, Sujapur, Baishnab Nagar, Farakka, Samserganj. Current MP from South Malda and Congress leader Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury (Dalu) has been winning the seat since 2009. However, with the passing years, his vote share is declining. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Abu Hasem’s victory margin over Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury was just 0.6 percent. Now, it is time to see whether S Mitra Chaudhary will cover this vote margin or not.

The 54-year-old BJP MLA from the English Bazar constituency is a social worker by profession and a women’s rights activist. She obtained a post-graduate degree from North Bengal University. In 2004, she participated in the launch of the National Legal Literacy Mission and 2008 served as national advisor of the National Legal Services Authority of the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Famously known as ‘Nirbhaya Didi’ in Kolkata, she has been supporting the women tormented by rape, trafficking, and violence. In 2014 she joined AITC and in 2019 ran on a BJP ticket from Malda Dakshin seat but lost to Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury.

She had been vocal about the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and said, “CAA is the law to give citizenship to those who need it and not to snatch anyone’s citizenship. Trinamool Congress’ campaigning propaganda has been going on only and only to mislead the common people and to instigate them in any way”.

Voter list research indicates a significant Muslim (58.8%) presence in the constituency, with a literacy percentage of 53.68%. There are also communities of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST), with approximately 15.2% and 3.7% of voters, respectively.

Recently, four assembly constituencies in the Malda district have been designated by the Election Commission of India (ECI) as being particularly vulnerable to election-related spending. District Magistrate Nitin Singhania of Malda announced that during the election, these Assembly segments under the South Malda Lok Sabha constituency would be observed by the Central investigating authorities. The Murshidabad district’s English Bazar, Sujapur, Mothabari, and Farakka are the four constituencies.

An interesting fact emerged from the constituency according a recent electoral roll created by the district election cell: English Bazar has more female voters than male voters.