The region of Malda where Sonia Gandhi addressed a rally today, has always been a Congress bastion. The Left Front may have ruled West Bengal for 35 years but Malda has always voted for the Congress. This area has been ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury’s stronghold. He became an MLA for the first time in 1957 and got elected every time since then. In 1980 he fought the Lok Sabha elections and got elected and till 2004 never lost a single election. Even now both the Lok Sabha seats in Malda are with the Congress. However the Congress is apprehensive that Mamata could make inroads into Malda during this Assembly Election and besides Malda has a sizeable Muslim population. Sonia Gandhi has therefore repeatedly used Mamata and Modi’s name together so that voters do not vote for Mamata.