The rust eating into the Congress was cruelly exposed when the party lost the zilla parishads of its last three stronghold districts to the ruling Trinamool Congress within a span of three months from July this year.
This completed a process that began with the loss of prominence in the politically-dominant south Bengal after then chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray brutally suppressed a naxalite uprising during 1971-75. Yet, the Congress kept intact its bases in the northern and central Bengal districts of Malda, Murshidabad and Uttar Dinajpur districts where strong leaders such as Abdul Gani Khan Choudhury, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury and Priyaranjan Dasmunshi called the shots.
However, with the death of Abdul Gani Khan Choudhury, his family could not secure the gates of the Malda fort. Similarly, the incumbency of Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Adhir had created a lot of adversaries because of his strong arm tactics in Murshidabad. In both the citadels of Malda and Murshidabad, the Trinamool Congress entered like a creeper and erupted like a banyan tree, decimating the stone walls in the process.
In Uttar Dinajpur, the district’s MP Priyaranjan Dasmunshi suffered a stroke in 2008, and has been on life support since then. His wife Deepa Dasmunshi, a social worker, was elected from the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat in 2009 but could not stand up to the growing influence of Trinamool in the state.
All municipalities in Uttar Dinajpur district were won over by Trinamool Congress through defections this July. Malda fell similarly in August and Murshidabad was won over in September. The seat count of the Congress in the Assembly fell to 44 from 39 with the defection office of its MLAs to the Trinamool Congress.