Baharampur: TMC’s final frontier in West Bengal

Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, one of the last remaining bastions of Congress in the state, is set to witness two layered fight between the Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee. While for Chowdhury, former Minister of State of Railways it is a matter retaining the Congress stronghold, for Banerjee, it is the final frontier in Bengal which her party is yet to conquer. Baharampur will go to polls on April 29.

In a bid to oust the Congress strongman and four-time MP TMC has resorted to engineering defection in Congress and has been able to rope in four Congress MLAs from Murshidabad. TMC has fielded former Congress MLA and once a close aide of Chowdhury Apurba Sarkar from Baharampur. Ironically, Sarkar played a key role in maintaining Chowdhury’s dominance in the constituency.

“The challenge for Adhir this time is to prove that his former aids such as Sarkar are nothing without him and not the other way around,” a district Congress leader told DH.

Local Congress workers said that TMC’s defection tactics have taken its toll on Congress’ organisation and the ruling party in West Bengal has snatched most of the Municipalities and Zilla Parishads from Congress in the district.

“If you listen to Adhir’s speeches during campaigning preventing TMC from booth capturing occurs as a refrain,” said Anil Hazra, as he headed towards the Kandi area of the constituency with this correspondent to attend a road show by Chowdhury.

During campaigning Chowdhury was seen in his usual defiant self and even dared the Chief Minister to contest against him.

“She makes baseless allegations that RSS is working for me but never mentions that she was once a BJP ally and a Minister in the NDA government. It shows her real face,” said Chowdhury at a roadside meeting in Kandi.

TMC’s had a bitter experience in Baharmpur in the last Lok Sabha elections. Chowdhury trounced TMC candidate Indranil Sen with a massive margin of 3,56,567 votes in 2014. This time TMC supremo has made it clear that she wants all the three Lok Sabha seats including Baharampur in Murshidabad.

As for Congress, they are banking on Chowdhury’s “Robinhood image” for the poor and the support of Muslim voters who form nearly 50% of the population in Murshidabad.

However, dislodging Chowdhury will not be an easy task for TMC. His dominance in Murshidabad became clear in the Assembly elections in 2006 when he ensured the defeat of the official Congress candidate by fielding the current TMC candidate Apurba Sarkar as an Independent from the Kandi Assembly constituency. Sarkar ultimately emerged victorious. Adhir even defied the Congress leadership’s instructions in 2011 Assembly elections and refused to enter into an alliance with TMC in Murshidabad.

It remains to be seen whether TMC conquers its final frontier in Bengal or the indomitable Congress strongman beats the odds once again.


Bharampur LS Constituency

State: West Bengal

2014 winner

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury(Congress)

Votes: 5,83,549

Runner Up

Indranil Sen (TMC)

Margin: 3,56,567

2019 candidates

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress)

Apurba Sarkar (TMC)

Krishna Juardar Arya (BJP)

Eid Mohammed( RSP)

Total voters: 1632087