Three consecutive terms as West Bengal Chief Minister, and yet Baharampur, the district headquarters of Murshidabad and once the seat of power of the Nawabs of Bengal, remained tantalisingly out of Mamata Banerjee’s grasp.

Doggedly defended by five-time MP and known Mamata critic Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress stronghold finally came under assault in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when the TMC chief imported cricketer Yusuf Pathan from faraway Gujarat to mount the final offensive on the party’s last citadel in Bengal.

And Baharampur fell, finally. Adhir lost a three-cornered fight against the TMC and BJP in a communally surcharged election stoked by a TMC MLA who threatened to throw BJP supporters in the Bhagirathi river, a distributary of the Ganga, “in a district with a 70% Muslim popu

See Full Page