Adhir Ranjan: Congress face in LS and BJP punching bag in no-trust debate

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In this ongoing Monsoon Session, Chowdhury, who is also the floor leader of the Congress in the Lower House, has been one of the main faces taking on the BJP over the Manipur issue. On Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also taken a swipe at Chowdhury, saying he was ready to offer time from the BJP’s quota in the no-trust debate for him to speak.

Apart from being the Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha, Chowdhury is a favourite punching bag for the BJP for being the face of the Congress’s remnant resistance in Bengal, where the BJP has fast positioned itself as the primary Opposition.

Before assuming a more national role in 2019 through his parliamentary position, Chowdhury was integral to the growth of the Congress cadre in rural Bengal, particularly the Murshidabad district he is from.

Chowdhury is currently the president of its state unit and arguably the only Congress leader in Bengal with a bastion to boast of, and the sole one who can take on Mamata. The party currently has zero Assembly seats in the state.

Chowdhury’s Berhampore, a seat he has held onto since 1999, is one of the two Lok Sabha seats — the other being Malda Dakshin —- that the party currently has in the state.

In the 2016 Assembly polls in the state, the Congress had won 14 of the 22 Assembly segments in Murshidabad and picked up another eight in neighbouring Malda. These two central Bengal districts alone had accounted for half of the party’s tally of 44 in the last Assembly polls.

The results in these districts were attributed to Chowdhury’s support base, which also extends to adjoining Nadia and Uttar Dinajpur districts.

Earlier this year, in a blow to the TMC, the Congress won the bypoll to the Sagardighi Assembly seat in Murshidabad, after Chowdhury stationed himself there through the campaign. The winning MLA, however, recently switched sides to the TMC.

Bastion of Berhampore

Chowdhury started his electoral career in 1991, losing his first Assembly contest from the Nabagram seat in Murshidabad. However, in 1996, he fought again Nabagram and won.

After she came to power in 2011, Mamata too had tried her best to make inroads into Murshidabad, sending her then-close aide Suvendu Adhikari as an observer to the district. However, even as the Muslim votes swung to Mamata and the Trinamool in other districts, in Murshidabad, they remained with the Congress, courtesy of Chowdhury. He was also the Minister of State for Railways during the UPA government from 2012 to 2014.

In Parliament

PRS legislature notes that Chowdhury has a high 91% attendance in Parliament. The average is 79%.

He has also participated in a total of 207 debates, while the average is 42.5%. The number of questions he has asked is however low at 69, as against the average of 189.

This March, Chowdhury wrote to Speaker Om Birla alleging his microphone had been muted for three days. “I am deeply disheartened to observe that ever since the House resumed after the break on March 13, 2023, there has been a Government-sponsored disruption in the House. It appears to me as if there is a well-hatched conspiracy on the part of the party in power to tarnish the image of an individual member of an Opposition Party (Sh Rahul Gandhi),” he said, adding: “The voice of the leaders of Opposition parties is not being heard at all.”

Chowdhury has also been a key Opposition face taking on the BJP on the Manipur issue. He was part of the 21-member multi-party delegation of MPs of the Opposition bloc which visited the violence-hit regions of Manipur before the debate on the no-confidence motion began.

After the visit, Chowdhury wrote an opinion piece in The Indian Express, on the situation in the state.

“Modi ji, now a direct appeal. What will it take to break your silence? When the video surfaced, you spoke for a few minutes outside Parliament and you brought in other states, including West Bengal. I am from West Bengal, and I have spoken up against violence there, time and again, but let me tell you: Please go to Manipur and see for yourself why you are wrong when you frame the violence there in political terms.”

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Saying the state posed an “unprecedented challenge”, he added: “Yes, silence is golden but yours (PM Modi’s) on Manipur is crass and hollow. When we say please speak on Manipur, please don’t think this is just one of the countless demands of the political Opposition, this is what people in Manipur want you to do, they want you to tell them that you are there by their side. You are the nation’s Prime Minister, not the BJP’s. The people of Manipur, the women, men and children don’t need a political lecture on violence, they need their Prime Minister to stand by them in their darkest hour. Manipur’s mann is broken and is hurting, Manipur has a mann ki baat. It needs its Prime Minister to listen — and speak.”