The feud in Ghani Khan Choudhury’s family took a turn for the worst on Monday after supporters of the deceased leader’s brother Abu Naser Khan Choudhury prevented his niece Mausam Benazir Noor, the AICC-nominated candidate from Malda North, from campaigning.

Mausam Noor, whose residence at Kotwali was surrounded by Naser’s supporters, said, “The AICC nominated me as the candidate for Malda North and I started to campaign. I have been receiving tremendous response from residents wherever I go. Today, some people stopped me from campaigning.”

“I have asked them to come and talk to me about their problem. They are not true Congress supporters or else they would have accepted the party high command’s decision. I will definitely go for campaigning, no matter who tries to stop me,” Noor said.

Around 10.30 am, when Noor was coming out of her house, she was stopped by over 100 people, all said to be supporters of Abu Naser. They chanted slogans and stopped her from going out to campaign. Later, they surrounded the family home in Kotwali for hours. The agitation lasted around four hours.

“We will not allow her to stand or campaign for Malda North. The people of Malda want Abu Naser as the candidate. We will not accept Mausam whatever Congress high command says. We will boycott the voting this time if she contests,” said a Congress worker.

Abu Naser said the agitation was a spontaneous expression of the people of Malda. “People want me as their candidate in Malda. And they will not accept anyone else in my place,” he said.

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