While the Congress and Left Front are fighting the elections together, the TMC is contesting in all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal after coming out of the INDIA bloc. “There is a saying that morning shows the day. Today’s gathering here gives an indication that Salim bhai is going to Parliament this time. In the three Lok Sabha constituencies in Murshidabad district (Murshidabad, Baharampur, and Jangipur), you have to defeat the Trinamool Congress,” said Chowdhury.

Claiming that the BJP was gaining in West Bengal, the Congress leader blamed the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC supremo. “Everywhere in the country, the BJP is losing. But in West Bengal, the BJP is gaining. This is because of Mamata Banerjee and her policies. She is helping the BJP by coming out of the INDIA bloc. She is helping the BJP grow in Bengal by targeting the Congress and the Left Front. She is doing this to protect her nephew Abhishek Banerjee from central agency investigations. She has no other choice than to help the BJP,” Chowdhury claimed, referring to CBI and ED questioning TMC MP Abhishek in corruption cases.

Urging the people to vote for Salim, Adhir, who is contesting from neighbouring Barhampur constituency, said: “Salim da is an able Parliamentarian. He used to give a lot of trouble to the BJP by asking pertinent questions when he was an MP. His experience as a Parliamentarian is needed to counter the policies of the BJP. You have to elect him to the Lok Sabha again so that he continues to fight against the BJP.”

The senior CPI(M) leader had last won the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 from Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur district. He lost to BJP’s Debashree Roy Chowdhury from there in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.