Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury: ‘Modi ji rattled… No Pulwama or Balakot, Ram Mandir having no effect… it is not a cakewalk this time’

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has been winning from Baharampur in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district since 1999. Chowdhury, who was the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha in the outgoing House, is facing a challenge from Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate and former India cricketer Yusuf Pathan and the BJP’s Dr Nirmal Saha.

For the Congress-Left alliance, Murshidabad district is an important poll battleground as the two seats where it stands a good chance are Baharampur and neighbouring Murshidabad constituency where CPM state secretary Md Salim is in the fray.

In an interview, Chowdhury, whose seat votes in the fourth phase on May 13, talks to The Indian Express about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Left-Congress alliance in Bengal, the TMC, and his party’s strategy. Excerpts:

The national political scene is changing fast. Rest assured that the diminishing returns of the Modi effect have already set in across the country. Day after day, phase after phase, Modi’s fate is being challenged. He cannot say it is a cakewalk this time.

Already, Modi ji is rattled by the challenge the Opposition has put forth. So, nobody can say what is going to happen. There is no Pulwama, no ultra-nationalism, and people’s mood is not like it was after Balakot. Ram Mandir, which Modi expected would be a big issue, is having no effect on the ground, even in the Hindi belt.

Across India, Modi’s aura, the euphoria, and jingoism are withering away. I am no psephologist but I can see that Modiji is not as comfortable as he was earlier.

Neither the Congress nor the Left ever indulged in communal or sectarian politics. On this, there was never a fundamental ideological difference between us. Leftist thought exists within Congress’s ideology, and history