The ongoing tussle between CPM’s Burdwan district committee and Nure Alam Chaudhury — former acting chief justice of the Calcutta High Court — over a property owned by his late father-in-law has led him to join the Trinamool Congress. Chaudhury is contesting the parliamentary election on Trinamool ticket from Ghatal in West Midnapore.

A former CPM member, Chaudhury was appointed as Additional Public Prosecutor of the state at the Calcutta High Court during the first Left Front government in 1977. His father-in-law, Mansur Habibulla and a comrade, became the Speaker of the Assembly in 1977. In 1992 Chaudhury was elevated to the post of a judge of the High Court and retired in March 2005.

The rift between Chaudhury and the CPM came to the fore after the death of Habibulla in late 90’s. The Burdwan district committee of CPM allegedly grabbed the property of Habibulla, even as a case over the disputed property was sub judice in the Calcutta HC and the Burdwan district court.

Talking to The Indian Express, Chaudhury admitted that property dispute with the CPM led him to join the anti-Left forces. He claimed that the character of the CPM and the Left Front has changed in the last 30 years. Some people infiltrated into the party and maligned its image, he added. Chaudhury claimed that the minorities have been affected across the state by forcible land acquisition. “The Sachar Committee report shows how the minorities have been deprived in the state,” he said.

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