Rising BJP’s popularity poses serious threat to Baharampur’s favourite Adhir Chowdhury

KOLKATA: Unemployment and workforce migration continue to remain major issues in Congress heavyweight Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s bastion, the Baharampur LS constituency in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district and seems to have triggered anti-incumbency for the five-time MP from the seat.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) sprung a surprise by bringing in former India all-rounder Yusuf Pathan from Gujarat to challenge Chowdhury, the son of the soil who has been winning the seat without a break since 1999. Besides Pathan, Chowdhury is also taking on BJP’s Nirmal Chandra Saha, a popular doctor from the region, where polls are scheduled on May 13.

“Although we consider Adhir da as our leader, we did not see his required involvement in Baharampur’s development in the last decade. We had higher expectations from him,” Sudhir Sengupta, a local businessman, told media.

In 2021 state Assembly elections, TMC managed to win six of those seven seats in the constituency, losing just one – the Baharampur assembly segment – to the BJP. While the TMC has never won the Baharampur LS constituency, local party leaders appeared to be taking heart from Chowdhury’s declining vote share.

Political observers maintain that despite five consecutive wins, Chowdhury has failed to cement the Congress foothold in Baharampur. The party has also remained unsuccessful in putting up a good show in the previous panchayat and civic body polls. The BJP, on the other hand, managed to expand its presence by winning the Baharampur assembly constituency three years ago. Though Yusuf Pathan has generated some excitement among a section of voters, experts expressed doubts on how much of that would get translated into votes in EVMs.

They say that despite his perceptible slide in popularity, Chowdhury continues to be a formidable force in the seat where an insider-outsider discourse in favour of the Congress leader is getting played out at the ground level.