“Is there any prohibition saying that a person who has been elected as an MP cannot contest the Assembly elections? There is no such prohibition. Even Mamata Banerjee, a seven-time MP, has also been fighting elections for the Assembly,” said veteran Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who always plays with a straight bat.
A comeback
Chowdhury, a five-time Congress MP and former leader of the party in Lok Sabha, is all set to return to State politics after two-and-a-half decades. Gearing up for a high‑stakes battle, he is contesting this Assembly elections from the Baharampur Assembly constituency in Murshidabad to recapture his former stronghold.
“In this Assembly polls, the Congress party is very much assertive. Our party is ahead in at least four districts in West Bengal. We are very much optimistic. The Congress will come out with a good results,” Chowdhury told businessline.
Causing a huge upset in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the heavyweight leader of the grand old party lost the minority-dominated Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency to Trinamool Congress’ cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan. Making his electoral debut, the former all-rounder had bowled Chowdhury out by winning the seat with a margin of more than 85,000 votes.
“Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee had fielded the Muslim celebrity against me in order to make a dent in the Muslim electorates. The ruling party in the State also tried to engineer communal clashes in my constituency before the Lok Sabha elections to polarise voters in order to defeat me,” Chowdhury pointed out.
Political observers feel that apart from religious polarisation, Congress’ weakening grip in Baharampur also caused the 2024 loss. And the party’s continued weakness here remains a major headache for Chowdhury in this election, too. The Baharampur Assembly constituency, among 22 Assembly seats in the Muslim-dominated Murshidabad district, covers Baharampur municipality, and five other gram panchayats. In this constituency, around 70 per cent voters are Hindu. In a Triangular contest, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will be taking on BJP’s incumbent MLA Subrata Maitra and Trinamool Congress’s Naru Gopal Mukherjee.
Seeking re-election
Maitra, who is seeking re-election, said the people of the State want parivartan, or change in the government, as they are “fed up with a large scale corruption” being carried out by the ruling Trinamool Congress. “The BJP can ensure a stable and efficient government in the State,” he said during an election rally.
“In this constituency names of around 4,000 voters were deleted during the SIR of the electoral rolls,” said Maitra. Chowdhury has been demanding that the elections should be postponed until all legitimate voters are included in the final voter list.
“Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is not a winning candidate. He lost this seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. His party lost the last Assembly elections in 2021. His vote bank has been shattered in five years. We are very optimistic this time as our candidate won LS polls two years ago,” said TMC’s Mukherjee.
Locals said although Chowdhury is still a very popular leader here, Congress’s strength has diminished considerably. It is going to be a toughest contest for the veteran leader. “I personally admire Adhir Chowdhury. But why should one vote for Adhir Chowdhury now? BJP rules at the Centre, while Trinamool is in power in the State. Why should people cast votes in favour of Congress just for only a seat for the party in this elections?” wondered Pappu Das, a voter of the constituency.
Published on April 15, 2026