Congress’ LoP in Lok Sabha is facing the prospect of a division in his minority vote bank.
Veteran Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury faces the toughest electoral test of his career as Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s googly threatens to uproot his stumps from what has been his pocket borough of Baharampur in West Bengal.
Last Sunday, the Trinamool Congress chose to announce its list of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections during a grand rally christened “Jana Garjan Sabha” at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground. During the event, while everybody focused on the top two leaders, Mamata Banerjee and heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee as they strode the innovative cross-ramps to get closer to their supporters, nobody paid any attention to the tall, lean cricketer sitting unobtrusively in the third row of the stage.
That man was Yusuf Pathan, known for his big-hitting cricketing exploits, whom Mamata has fielded to hit bête-noire and the Congress’ Leader of the Opposition in the current Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury out of the political field.
“I recognised him as that cricketer who hit massive sixes. I thought he would be introduced as a Trinamool Congress supporter. I could never imagine MamataDi would announce his candidature for a Lok Sabha seat and that too from Baharampur,” said a veteran party leader who was sitting on the same stage.
Pathan, a Vadodara-based cricketer, was part of the 2011 World Cup-winning team. But his only connection to West Bengal is that he played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL for seven years.
Congress state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has won the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat five straight times since 1999 and given the history of acrimony between him and the Trinamool Congress’ top leadership, this contest will be among the most-watched in these Lok Sabha elections.
The Trinamool Congress has never won the seat, which in the last seven decades has been dominated by either the Congress or the Revolutionary Socialist Party. The only solace that the Trinamool can hold onto is that Chowdhury’s vote share has been on a downward trend, dipping more than 11% since the 2009 general elections. At the same time, the Trinamool has become a serious contender only in the last two general elections, 2014 and 2019, when its candidates emerged as the runners-up.
With Pathan in the race, the Trinamool Congress believes it has a double advantage. One, the cricketer’s star quality will bring in the crowds and second, as an “outsider”, he is better placed to rally the multiple groups of “Chowdhury baiters”.
“You always need a disruptor to dislodge an entrenched candidate. And as far as we see it, Yusuf Pathan is just that,” a senior Trinamool leader said.
“Till now, all of AdhirDa’s challengers have been locals from Baharampur. And there are several groups of baiters who want to contest against AdhirDa. As an outsider, it will be easier for Pathan to rally all these different groups together rather than if we were to pick leaders of one group,” the Trinamool leader further explained.
The constituency has 52% Muslim voters and the party believes Pathan will help in dividing them.
Both the Congress and the Left leaders claim that by fielding him, the Trinamool has already conceded defeat.
“Baharampur is largely a rural population. How will Pathan speak to the voters when he does not speak Bangla? Second, it runs against the Trinamool’s own narrative of framing the BJP as outsiders,” a senior Left leader told The Sunday Guardian.
The Trinamool, meanwhile, stoutly defended Pathan’s candidature. In a sound bite released by the party, Rajya Sabha MP Sukendu Shekhar Ray said: “Krishna Menon and B.R. Ambedkar have stood for elections here. Bengal never considered them outsiders.”
“Outsiders are those who insult Bengal, who talk about capturing Bengal and those who deprive Bengal of its rightful dues,” Ray insisted. He added that these tags would not matter since the 2024 general elections in the state are about “Modi’s guarantees vs Didi’s guarantees”.
“If the Trinamool Congress wanted to honour the former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, then they should have sent him to the Rajya Sabha,” said Adhir Chowdhury, hours after Abhishek read out Pathan’s name. “If Mamata Banerjee had good intentions for Pathan, she would have asked the I.N.D.I.A bloc for a seat for him in Gujarat. But here in West Bengal, he is selected as a candidate to help the BJP, so that Congress can be defeated,” he said.
Continuing his attack against Mamata Banerjee, Chowdhury also added that Yusuf Pathan was selected by the Trinamool to “polarise the common man and to help the BJP”. He also said that Mamata’s candidate list proved that she could not be trusted by other political parties.
“Mamata Banerjee is in fear that if she continues to be in the I.N.D.I.A bloc, PM Modi will be unhappy. By separating herself from the I.N.D.I.A bloc, she has sent a message to the PMO, don’t be unhappy with me, I am not standing to fight against the BJP,” he said.
Chowdhury said, “I have always put up a fight against Mamata Banerjee. The way she announced all names shows she is helping the BJP. My fight shall continue.”
However, given the minority-dominated constituency he will fight from, Yusuf Pathan may give Chowdhury a run for his money. Moreover, a strong anti-incumbency sentiment could leave Chowdhury vulnerable.
The BJP lashed out at the Trinamool Congress for bringing people from outside. “Your inability to find suitable Bengali candidates indicates that people who are concerned about their political future and prospects of winning have certainly refused your offer. Hence you had to lure outsiders who are unaware of the ground reality,” said West Bengal’s Leader of Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari.
Observers say that the choice of Yusuf Pathan also unequivocally means that it is the formal end of the I.N.D.I.A front in Bengal. At a time when the BJP is collecting new allies, the I.N.D.I.A front has been left high and dry by Mamata Banerjee.
Clearly, Banerjee has shown no mamta (mercy) either for the Congress or for the I.N.D.I.A front.