Bengal Congress in turmoil: Will lone warrior Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury join BJP?

The West Bengal unit of the Congress and its 'lone warrior' in the state, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, are now at a crossroads from where they might have to take different paths, repeating a 26-year-old history.

Chowdhury and the party have been at cross purposes ever since the Congress suffered a debilitating defeat in the Lok Sabha battle under his leadership in the state and his own failure to secure a record sixth consecutive win.

The gulf between them became more glaring when Chowdhury was caught unawares last week about the change of his status in the party, a development that left him fuming.

Chowdhury joining BJP?

If Congress sources are to be believed, it even prompted him to weigh his political options amid an open invitation from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to cross over.

It so happened that Chowdhury was addressed as former state president by AICC’s Bengal in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir at a meeting convened by the high command at the Congress headquarters in Delhi to discuss his successor.

Chowdhury feigned ignorance of the fact that he was already removed from the post of the PCC chief. Mir, meanwhile, said Chowdhury had resigned after the Lok Sabha election results were out.

Removal as state chief

“The AICC president (Mallikarjun Kharge) should have informed him if his resignation was accepted. It is humiliating for a leader of his stature to be conveyed of his ouster by suddenly addressing him as a former president,” said a Chowdhury loyalist in the state Congress.

He pointed out that Chowdhury was the floor leader of the Congress in the last Lok Sabha.

The issue here, however, is not just about the change of leadership. There is a larger policy position vis-à-vis the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is involved here.

Chowdhury flays Mamata

Chowdhury and his supporters have been pursuing a strong anti-TMC line, which is often at odds with the position taken by the Congress national leadership.

For instance, Chowdhury accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of lying about her microphone being switched off at a recent NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi.

“I think she is lying about what transpired at the meeting. It is very surprising if a chief minister was not allowed to speak. She acted as per a predetermined script,” he alleged.

Congress miffed with Chowdhury

His position was different than that of the party's central leadership, which denounced the treatment meted out to Banerjee as unacceptable.

He further ruffled the party high command recently by writing a letter to President Droupadi Murmu seeking her intervention to restore democracy in West Bengal, which he alleged faces “a state of Emergency”.

With his reference to Emergency and total collapse of law and order in the state, he sounded more like a BJP leader.

‘Fight Mamata, don’t embrace’

Chowdhury loyalists, however, argue that the Congress needs to confront the TMC tooth and nail for its own survival. They pointed out that the TMC engineered defections from the Congress and also came down heavily on its workers even when it was in alliance with the former.

Last month, a Congress worker, Manik Roy, was beaten to death allegedly by TMC members at Maynaguri in Jalpaiguri district.

“How can we think of cordial relations with the TMC when they (TMC workers) are killing our workers? Our central leadership needs to understand this,” said a PCC general secretary.

Better ties with TMC

The central leadership as well as a section within the state unit on the other hand want a better relationship with Mamata Banerjee and her party, both at the Central and state levels.

This is not merely to make INDIA block, of which the TMC is also a constituent, more cohesive against the Modi government. The congeniality, the pro-TMC faction argues, will also help the Congress rebuild its organisation piggyback on the state’s ruling party.

Their perception is that even the party workers will be out of harm’s way if there is a tie-up with the TMC. But that can happen only if Chowdhury is sidelined.

Chowdhury a stumbling block?

The alliance talk with the Congress at the state level can resume only when Adhir Chowdhury is replaced as the state Congress chief, opined TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

The AICC since last week has been holding a series of consultative meetings to choose Chowdhury’s successor without much success. This is because the state unit is totally divided on whether to go along with the TMC or pursue the anti-Mamata stand.

Recreating Congress history

Some Congress old-timers recall that the party had almost faced a similar dilemma in the late 1990s. Due to the compulsion of coalition politics at the Centre, many in the grand old party were against coming out all guns blazing against the then CPI(M)-led Left Front government in the state. This enraged Mamata Banerjee who quit the Congress to form the TMC in 1998.

But there the similarity ends for Chowdhury. Despite being the most formidable and firebrand leader of the party in the state now, he is not nearly as popular as Banerjee was even way back in the 90s.

Moreover, today the Congress in Bengal is a pale shadow of its former self. The Congress should bear these in mind as it scouts for Chowdhury’s replacement and reassesses its relations with the TMC in the state.