Library and mass education minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury, may not contest Assembly elections this time on a Trinamul Congress ticket if the party fields him in the Mangalkot constituency in East Burdwan.

He has already conveyed this to Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee. In the last Assembly polls in 2016 he was elected from Mangalkol and became a minister in the Mamata cabinet.

“I won’t contest elections from Mangalkot this time because I don’t like to work under Anubrata Mondal as I am totally upset working under the political control of Mondal who the Trinamul Congress president in Birbhum district. I am ready to fight the polls anywhere in East Burdwan district except Mangalkot,” Chowdhury, state president of Jamiat Ulema-eHind, told The Statesman today.

“I have requested my party supremo to consider my issue and she has assured me to meet my demands so that I can contest elections with Trinamul Congress ticket,” he added.

“I am sitting with members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind on 18 February to discuss all these issues ahead of polls scheduled in April-May,” he said.

A day after the heavyweight transport and irrigation minister Mr Suvendu Adhikari’s resignation from the Trinamul Congress government on 27 November in 2020 speculation was also rife that Mr Chowdhury may also quit the party.

“There is no question of quitting Trinamul Congress,” he said. Mr Chowdhury is seriously upset with the party leadership’s reluctance to solve his grievances related to political control over assembly constituencies-Mangolkot, Ausgram and Ketugram in East Burdwan district.

Chowdhury is an MLA from Mangolkot. With the directives of the Trinamul Congress top leadership Mondal looks after all political activities in the three Assemblies which fall under the Bolpur parliamentary constituency.

This system has aggrieved the library minister who does not want to continue his political work staying under Mr Mondal, a strongman of Trinamul Congress in Birbhum.

“My grievances are legitimate and justified. Why does Birbhum party leadership control the Mangolkot, Ausgram and Ketugram Assembly seats when all administrative works in these three areas are under the jurisdiction of the district magistrate and superintendent of police in East Burdwan district?” the aggrieved library minister said.

“Election process like preparation of voters’ lists in the three Assemblies is also done under the supervision of East Burdwan district administration. There is no administrative link between these three areas with Birbhum district administration,” according to him.

“But for our constituencies we are facing a serious disparity in attitude of our party leadership. People of Mangolkot who have elected me won’t like to stay under the control of Bolpur party office. Many of my party workers facing criminal cases because of Anubrata’s directives,” he alleged.