Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury: Bengal's maverick politician

Kolkata, July 29 (IANS) Five-time Congress MP from West Bengal's Berhampore constituency Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who has recently apologised after his "Rashtrapatni" remark went on to create a furore, has earned an image of being a maverick politician since his entry into the West Bengal Assembly way back in 1996.

However, such controversial comments from Chowdhury -- the president of the West Bengal unit of Congress, is nothing new. In 2019, which addressing the Motion of Thanks on Presidential address, he made a controversial statement while drawing a comparison between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and late former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi as he said, "Kaha Maa Ganga, Kaha Gandi Naali."

In fact, his entry into the Bengal Assembly also marked the beginning of his spat with current West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was associated with Congress then.

In fact, Chowdhury contested the elections on behalf of Congress from the Nabagram assembly constituency in Murshidabad district in 1996 from behind the bars, as was imprisoned in connection with the murder of a CPI-M leader. However, despite that, he won by a margin of 20,000 votes.

That marked the beginning of the tiff with Mamata Banerjee, who vehemently opposed the entry of Chowdhury into the Assembly. She even went to the extent of tying a noose with her shawl and wrapping that around her neck in public as a mark of protest to Chowdhury's entry.

However, since then Chowdhury came to be known as a "tough man" and of "uncompromising character" of the Congress against the (then) strong ruling CPI-M organisation network throughout West Bengal in the late 90s and under his leadership, Congress started converting Murshidabad district as a strong base for the party.

In 1999, Chowdhury made his entry into the Lok Sabha by getting elected as a Congress candidate from Berhampore Lok Sabha constituency in Murshidabad district. Since then, he did not have to look back and kept the Congress flag high from that Lok Sabha constituency till the latest in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when he won by margin of over 80,000 votes.

In 2005, Chowdhury had to spend about a month over a twin- murder charge but was released on bail soon.

That case is still pending. As per the affidavit filed by him with the Election Commission of India before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he has seven pending criminal cases against him including murder.

However, his personal popularity with a Robin Hood image made him the blue-eyed boy of the Congress' central leadership especially the erstwhile Congress president, Sonia Gandhi.

In October 2012, he was made the minister of state for railways in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progress Alliance (UPA-II) government and finally in February 2014 he was made the state Congress president in West Bengal, the chair which he is still holding.

Despite establishing himself as a seasoned politician through his strangle against the CPI-M-led Left Front in West Bengal in his prime, Chowdhury started proving that his actual political rival is Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress, and not the CPI-M.

In the 2016 West Bengal assembly elections, Chowdhury on behalf of Congress and the-then CPI-M state secretary and Leader of Opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suryakanta Mishra, were the two principal architects of having seat sharing agreement.

The 2016 West Bengal assembly elections were historic in a sense that brought traditionally arch political rivals, the Congress and the Left Front to come together and take on the mighty ruling Trinamool Congress. However, that joint effort did not become fruitful, and the Trinamool Congress returned to power with Mamata Banerjee as the chief minister for the second time.

However, despite that failure, Chowdhury strongly voiced for continuation of Congress' alliance with the Left Front and the two political forces also contested the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections together with both forces ending up with zeros in terms of numbers.