In Kolkata, April 2, a quick look at the pre-election situation in the Baharampur assembly constituency, located on the border with Bangladesh in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal, suggests a tense triangular contest between the incumbent BJP MLA, Subrata Maitra, TMC's civic body chief, Naru Gopal Mukherjee, and former Pradesh Congress president, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
However, a closer look reveals that the main factors influencing the election in Baharampur are the polarization of voters along religious lines and Chowdhury's return to state politics after a three-decade absence.
Chowdhury, a former five-time Member of Parliament, lost to TMC's cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan in the 2024 parliamentary elections, but he is now focusing on regaining his former Congress stronghold, where the BJP made significant gains in the 2021 state elections.
Maitra, also known as Kanchan, defeated Naru Gopal Mukherjee of the Trinamool Congress five years ago, securing nearly 27,000 votes, and pushed Manoj Chakraborty, a three-time MLA from the Congress, to third place, becoming the first saffron-backed MLA in Independent India to win in Baharampur.
Baharampur has a rich history. Established in 1757 by the East India Company following the Battle of Plassey, the town served as the company's first headquarters in India. Over time, Baharampur evolved into a major production hub, attracting not only the British but also the Dutch and the French.
Currently, the constituency includes the urban area of the Baharampur municipality and five gram panchayat areas, two of which are predominantly Muslim.
The incumbent BJP MLA prefers door-to-door voter outreach over public meetings, stating that he targets 500 households daily during campaigns.
"The social welfare schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are designed to benefit both Hindu and Muslim voters. This is in contrast to the problem of infiltration from neighboring Bangladesh, which is causing law and order issues and affecting our food supply and job opportunities. Adding to this is the corruption and muscle-flexing by the TMC, and you can see who the people will support," said Maitra.
Chowdhury attributes the anti-NRC-CAA movement in the state, further fueled by the actions of central forces firing on villagers in Cooch Behar, as reasons for the Congress's poor performance in Baharampur in 2021, telling