Kolkata: Sent to jail in class 9 for involvement in the Naxal movement, Berhampore’s “Robin Hood”, Sonia Gandhi’s “Royal Bengal Tiger” and a Trojan Horse to Trinamool’s Abhishek Banerjee — Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is a man known by many names, depending on who one talks to.
But for 59-year-old Muhammad Zubair, who was holding a CPI(M) flag while Congress leader Chowdhury was passing by Berhampore in a jeep with Rahul Gandhi in Murshidabad Thursday, he is a leader who cares about people.
“I am holding a CPI(M) flag, but I will vote for the Congress. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is reachable, he helps us when we need him and listens to us. He has done work for the public welfare,” Zubair told ThePrint.
Chowdhury has won the Berhampore Lok Sabha seat since 1999 — withstanding both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee waves at different points of time.
So, when Rahul Gandhi decided to come to Murshidabad as part of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Mamata was miffed.
In 1996, she had threatened to hang herself if Chowdhury was given the Congress ticket.
In 2024, Chowdhury continued to rant against her on every possible occasion, with Rahul silently watching from New Delhi.
So, while Mamata might have chosen to blame Gandhi’s dalliance with the Left for walking out of the INDIA bloc, Chowdhury’s constant snipes at her were always seen as the principal provocative agent. Nobody expected Mamata to go with the Left, or Gandhi to abandon the Left, anyway.
What many in political circles have wondered is the secret behind the Gandhis’ love for Chowdhury, who has embarrassed the Congress in the Lok Sabha on more than one occasion with his often thoughtless remarks.
In June 2019, when then Congress president Rahul Gandhi opted for Chowdhury as the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, it came as a surprise to many leaders within and outside the Congress.
Congress sources, however, say that the Berhampore MP has somehow endeared himself to the Gandhis, especially Rahul, who, as then vice-president, was instrumental in his appointment as West Bengal Congress chief in 2014 and then as Lok Sabha leader.
Chowdhury was made state Congress chief in 2020, too, and has continued in the post since, targeting Mamata Banerjee all the time even as Sonia and Rahul courted the Bengal CM.
He is eyeing a sixth term from Berhampore, which is predominantly a Congress bastion but has lost ground to the TMC in the 2021 assembly polls, with six out of seven MLAs being elected from the TMC and one from the BJP.
Also Read: Mamata rules out reconciliation with Congress — ‘brought big yatra to Bengal but gave me no info’
A Sholay fan ‘dedicated to uplifting poor’
Born in Berhampore in 1956, Chowdhury’s personal life has also been marked by tragedy and loss.
His teenage daughter, Shreyashi Chowdhury, reportedly died by suicide in Kolkata in 2006 and years later, in 2019, his estranged wife Arpita Chowdhury died due to a prolonged illness. He is now married for the second time to Atasi Chattopadhyay, who is not in active politics.
None of the Congress leaders in West Bengal could recall details about Chowdhury’s family, especially his parents.
His political journey began with his involvement in the Naxal movement in Bengal, which landed him in jail for the first time in the 1970s.
He joined the Congress in 1991 under Rajiv Gandhi and made his political debut from jail in 1996, when he contested and won the state polls from Nabagram with a 20,000 margin, despite being accused of murdering a CPI(M) leader’s relative.
While speaking on a television show Aap Ki Adalat last year, Chowdhury said he had been shot at and even admitted to having stolen revolvers during the Naxal movement in Bengal, which he joined while still in school.
In the same interview, he also disclosed his love for Sholay — the iconic Bollywood movie.
One close aide of Chowdhury told ThePrint, “Adhirda is dedicated to uplifting the poor. He works round the clock and gets very little time with his family. Criminal cases are a tactic used by any party in power to threaten political opponents.”
Criminal cases and controversies
A class IX pass, Chowdhury spent a month in prison for a double murder case in 2005. He was suspected of being involved in the alleged murder of Hanif Sheikh and his son Laltoo, who owned a hotel in Berhampore. A Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court issued a non-bailable warrant against him and 13 others, but he was later granted bail by the Calcutta High Court due to lack of evidence.
In 2011, a TMC leader Md Kamaruzzaman was shot dead while on his motorcycle with his daughter riding pillion. According to the victim’s wife Nila Hamid, three or four miscreants had shot her husband allegedly upon the instruction of Chowdhury. Four were arrested from Nadia but police could not prove Chowdhury’s involvement.
According to Chowdhury’s 2019 Lok Sabha election affidavit, the Congress has listed seven pending criminal cases against him filed in Murshidabad and Birbhum districts for alleged murder, creating a ruckus at a polling booth and obstructing public officers from discharging their duties, physical assault and criminal trespass. Charges have not been framed in any of the above cases.
He was declared an absconder in a 1996 murder case. That year, he campaigned with a recorded voice and won. In 2010, he was acquitted of the 2003 murder of a CPM panchayat pradhan. In the 2005 case of the murder of two hoteliers, he was again acquitted.
But despite the record, for the people of Berhampore, he is “Robin Hood”.
“Dada (Chowdhury) is fearless, he has been doing social work even before he became a politician and has been fighting against the TMC for years. From getting daughters married to helping out with work, he has been here,” said Pinaki Mondal, a tea stall owner near the Berhampore Railway station.
Also Read: Last word on INDIA hasn’t been said yet. But the dictionary is running out of words
Association with Congress
Chowdhury was appointed the Congress’ Murshidabad chief between 1999 and 2000, after his first Lok Sabha victory with a margin of 95,391 votes. He then became the working president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) in 2014 for four years before returning in 2019.
“Sonia Gandhi had once acknowledged Adhir Ranjan as the Royal Bengal Tiger while introducing him. He is known to be close to the Gandhi family and also known to be a part of the Rahul Gandhi camp,” a Congress leader reportedly said.
He had also persuaded and suggested late Congress veteran Pranab Mukherjee to fight elections from minority-dominated Jangipur in his district of Murshidabad. With Mukherjee winning the seat in 2004 and 2009, it cemented Chowdhury’s stature with the Congress high command, according to media reports.
It was in 2016 that Chowdhury reportedly announced a formal understanding with the Left in Bengal against the TMC for the state polls. He continues that tie for the third time this year for the Lok Sabha elections.
TMC vs Chowdhury
As the Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Chowdhury at a meeting in New Delhi in December spoke out against joining hands with the TMC.
Weeks later, the TMC announced it would fight solo in Bengal essentially letting Chowdhury have his way.
According to Mamata Banerjee, she had offered two seats in Malda to the Congress but the national party had declined the offer.
Since then, senior party leaders and spokespersons have pinned the blame on Chowdhury for the TMC-Congress alliance failure in Bengal. While Abhishek Banerjee called him a Trojan horse, TMC MP Derek O’Brien claimed Chowdhury was in an ABC alliance (Adhir, BJP, CPI-M) in Berhampore, with him leading a tie with the BJP and CPI(M).
According to political analyst Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Chowdhury’s constant remarks against Mamata have irked the TMC.
“Adhir Ranjan has vowed to fight the BJP and the TMC. The Congress in Bengal has a longer fight — 2026 will be the state polls, they cannot afford to support TMC in Bengal and send out the wrong message among the cadres. Thus, the all-out attack on Mamata,” the analyst told ThePrint.
The roots of the animosity between Chowdhury and Mamata can be traced back to the late 1990s when both were rising stars in the Congress. Mamata had already made a name for herself as a fiery MP from Jadavpur, who had defeated CPI(M) stalwart Somnath Chatterjee. Adhir was vying for a Lok Sabha ticket from Berhampore, which sparked a bitter feud with Mamata.
According to Congress leaders in West Bengal, Adhir and Mamata’s rivalry goes back in time when Somen Mitra was the Congress state unit chief. While Chowdhury was loyal to Mitra, Mamata was close to the late Subrata Mukherjee, a former Congress leader who then joined TMC.
“Adhir Ranjan was a Mitra loyalist and Mamata was team Subrata Mukherjee. Events in the Somen Mitra camp, which was anti-Mamata, led to the birth of Trinamool Congress,” another Congress leader told ThePrint.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
Also Read: ‘Only those who are stupid will try to expel her’ — why Mamata’s backed Mahua despite controversies