First time in six decades; Ghani family opts out of contesting from traditional Congress bastion
Telegraph | 17 April 2026
For the first time in six decades, no member of Malda’s influential Khan Choudhury family in Kotowali is contesting from their traditional Congress bastion, the Sujapur Assembly constituency this year, disappointing party workers and supporters in the area.
Sujapur, around 10km from the district headquarters, has long been considered a Congress bastion. The party had held the seat consistently from 1962 till it lost in 2021.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress regained its footing in the seat.
The constituency has historically been dominated by the family of A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury (1927-2006), the Congress patriarch from Malda, who served as the MLA from Sujapur between 1967 and 1980. From 1980 onwards, he was elected as Malda MP for eight consecutive terms and became the Union railway minister in the Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi governments.
The family or their close associates retained control of the Sujapur seat almost continuously from 1967 to 2021, barring 1982 and 1987.
Ghani Khan Choudhury’s sister Rubi Noor won the seat in 1981 and remained MLA until she died in 2008.
Her daughter, Mausam Noor entered politics through a by-election in 2009 before moving to Parliament later that year.
Abu Naser Khan Choudhury, Ghani’s younger brother, held the seat from 2009 to 2016.
In 2016, Isha Khan Choudhury won the Sujapur Assembly constituency for Congress, defeating his uncle Abu Naser, who then joined Trinamool.
The 2021 Assembly poll, however, saw a dramatic shift when Trinamool candidate Mohammad Abdul Ghani defeated Isha by a massive margin of 1.3 lakh votes, surprising even party insiders.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress bounced back in the Sujapur Assembly segment under the Malda Dakshin Lok Sabha seat, pushing Trinamool to second place by over 83,000 votes. Isha won the Malda Dakshin Lok Sabha seat to become the sole Congress MP from Bengal.
This time, Congress has fielded Abdul Hannan, currently the leader of the Opposition in the Trinamool-run Malda Zilla Parishad. Hannan has no familial ties to the Khan Choudhury family.
Local Congress supporters believe the absence of the influential family could impact the party’s prospects.
“The Kotowali family has its own influence. Workers here have deep trust in them. Hannan is known for his social work, but he is not from the family,” said Asrarul Haque, a madrasa teacher from the constituency.
Another Congress supporter, Abdur Razzak, a migrant worker, expressed concern over the challenge posed by Trinamool candidate Sabina Yeasmin.
“Defeating Trinamool would have been easier if a Khan Choudhury family member had contested,” he said.
Acknowledging the sentiment, Isha said that although a family member like Mausam Noor could have been fielded in the seat, they went ahead with the AICC’s decision to field Hannan.
“Sujapur is a prestige fight for us. We are focusing more here because we do not want a repeat of 2021,” he said.
Sabina, however, dismissed the significance of the family’s absence, asserting that the contest was about political ideology rather than personalities. “Trinamool had won here last time. Trinamool will retain the seat,” she said.