Congress faces rough weather over Adhir-Atish spat

Kolkata, Apr 10: Leading a party of intense squabbling, West Bengal Congress president Pranab Mukherjee finds a sticky wicket in his home turf seven days ahead of the Assembly polls.

Even though the party staggered to cross the ordeal of selecting candidates, dissention rumbles and rebellion stares at it threatening the poll prospects in Murshidabad district. It is the only stronghold of the Congress in West Bengal that saved it from total disaster in the previous Assembly elections and the last Lok Sabha polls.

Triggered by a bitter rivalry between party strongman and Lok Sabha member Adhir Chowdhury and the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Atish Sinha, the district is in the vortex of internal bickerings with three rebel candidates throwing gauntlet against the official nominees and hopes for a better show elsewhere in Murshidabad threatening to come a cropper.

Defying the PCC directive and the cousel of the High Command, Mr Chowdhury fielded independent rebel candidates against Mr Sinha in Kandi, Ms Mayarani Pal in Behrampur and Mr.Niyamat Sheikh in Hariharpara, in what he called for a 'crusade'.

Party sources apprehend that the infighting that vertically split the organisation in Murshidabad will leave its impact in the other constituencies of the district.

Upset over the development, AICC general secretary in-charge of Bengal, Margaret Alva treaded cautiously to say that she would talk to Mr Chowdhury over the issue and try to persuade him to withdraw his candidates.

Mr Mukherjee, PCC chief, who made his first entry to the Lok Sabha in 2004 from Murshidabad district, courtesy Adhir Chowdhury, made it clear that the party would not revise its decision on the nominees from those three constituencies.

''It was the party's decision that we would nominate all the sitting MLAs, and there is no question of backing out from that decision,'' he said.

Refusing to accept the formula that all the sitting MLAs be given tickets, Mr.Chowdhury alleged that a number of them had no base among the people and the party would stand to lose if they were allowed to contest. Apart from the official and rebel Congress candidates, the Left Front and Trinamool Congress nominees are among others in the fray from those three constituencies.

Having sway over almost entire Murshidabad, Adhir Chowdhury turned the district in what can be described as an island for the Congress, witnessing a steady decline in support among the opposition voters in the Marxist ruled state.

For a party having a share of only 26 out of the state's total 294 seats, Murshidabad alone contributed 16 in the last Assembly elections even as the figure stood poor when compared to the party's performance in the district in the 1996 polls.

The district returned to the Lok Sabha in 2003 with three Congress candidates, including Mr Mukherjee, The credit for the achievement was ascribed solely to Mr Chowdhury who was said to have steered Mr Mukherjee to victory in Lok Sabha polls, nudging out the sitting CPI(M) MP from Jangipur constituency.

Mr Chowdhury, who made a meteoric rise to enter stardom within the state party, however, got embroiled in a bitter feud with Atish Sinha, the Congress aristocrat from Kandi.

The squabbling reached a new height over allocation of Assembly polls tickets when Mr Chowdhury demanded a fair treat to his followers and the PCC recommended to the AICC its own choices.

The development sent the state leaders scurrying to Delhi a good many time over the past couple of months, taking advice from the central leaders, including party president Sonia Gandhi and holding reconciliation meetings between the two factions without any success.

The process inordinately delayed release of the party's final list even as the problem kept burning and the ranks remained divided.

Even though few more followers of Mr Chowdhury were denied tickets, the Congress strongman turned openly hostile over selecting Mr.Sinha, Ms Pal and Mr Sheikh.

Dissatisfied with the High Command's decision, Mr Chowdhury declared to campaign for the rebel candidates and threatened that the PCC would face a revolt if the official nominees were not withdrawn from Kandi, Behrampur and Hariharpara.

UNI