TOUGH TEST FOR ADHIR CHOWDHURY AS MAMATA BOWLS A GOOGLY

Congress' LoP in Lok Sabha is facing the prospect of a division in his minority vote bank.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

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.