Is it end of road for Adhir after 2 from Cong join TMC?

Does the joining of two winning Congress candidates in Domkal Municipality to Trinamool Congress hours after the results of the municipal elections were announced on Wednesday evening mean the end of the political career of Adhir Chowdhury, president, West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee is the biggest question that is doing the rounds in state politics now.

With the joining of two Congress and one CPI(M) candidate of Domkal Municipality, all the 21 wards are now under the control of Trinamool Congress. Soumik Hossain, a young Trinamool leader defeated Masadul Sheikh of CPI(M) by a record margin of 3,837 votes.

Shortly after the election results were announced, Asadul Hossain of Congress who was elected from ward number 9 of Domkal and Mohammad Rafikul Islam of CPI(M) who was elected from ward 20 joined the Trinamool Congress. Later, Bilal Sheikh of the Congress, who was elected from ward 21, also joined the TMC. Soumik Hossain said all the three had joined Trinamool to support the development work that would be taken up by the municipality.

Political experts feel that the joining of two Congress candidates mark the beginning of the end Adhir Chowdhury's rule in Murshidabad.

To keep his chair intact, Chowdhury had introduced group politics in Murshidabad and had successfully cornered Atish Chandra Sinha who was the leader of Opposition in the Assembly. Because of his "dictatorship", many workers joined the Trinamool.

Shortly before the 2016 Assembly elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee played a masterstroke and asked Suvendu Adhikari, state Transport minister, to look after the Murshidabad district. Though the TMC bagged only four out of 22 seats in Murshidabad, shortly after the Trinamool Congress government was sworn in, Murshidabad zilla parishad and Baharampur municipality came under the TMC after majority of the elected members joined it.

Though the people had rejected the Congress-Left Front alliance, Chowdhury stuck to his view and an alliance between the two parties were arrived at before the municipal elections. Chowdhury's close aide Shaoni Sinha Roy, MLA from Lalbag, was defeated in the municipal polls.

In Pujali, Nirufa Nazir of the Congress and Rinku Routh, an Independent candidate joined the TMC after the results taking the total number seats under Trinamool to 14. The remaining two seats were bagged by the BJP.

Thus, out of 64 seats spreading over three municipalities, Domkal, Raiganj and Pujali in the plains, Congress has only two councillors while its partner Left Front does not have any representation in these three civic bodies.