Jangipur: After barely scraping through in 2012 bypolls on his father Pranab Mukherjee vacating the seat, Abhijit Mukherjee is now facing a stern test to rid himself of ‘President's son' tag in this minority-dominated ‘bidi' town where he is pitted against six Muslim rivals, among others.
The Lok Sabha seat is all set to witness a multi-cornered fight on April 24, as the sitting MP faces strong challenge from Left Front candidate Muzzafar Hossain, Trinamool Congress' Haji Nurul Islam and BJP's Samrat Ghosh.
The Jamat backed pro-minority Welfare Party of India nominee Monirul Islam, Social Democratic Party's Md Sahabuddin and Socialist Unity Centre's Abdus Sayeed are candidates from smaller parties who could play spoilsport by cutting into Muslim votes, political observers feel.
Some of these parties got about 3-5 per cent share in the 2012 bypolls. After his father vacated the seat on becoming the President in 2012, Abhijit won by a slender margin of 2,536 votes against Hossain.
“Whether it's a three-cornered or a four-cornered contest, I will win, whatever be the margin,” Abhijit told PTI.
