Behrampore, May 9: This Robin Hood doesn’t carry a crossbow. Instead, a king-size cigarette dangles from his fingers.

And when not dragging at the long filter, his lips spew venom at the CPM.

Adhir Choudhury is outraged. How can the CPM brand him — the Robin Hood — an anti-social, a murderer?

“If I am a murderer why are they not arresting me? And is the CPM Ramakrishna? If it is so, then how come 595 Congress workers were murdered in Murshidabad in the past 26 years?” thunders the man against whom there are at least three criminal cases.

It is 6 in the evening and the Congress candidate from Murshidabad’s Behrampore Lok Sabha constituency has just reached a village in Naoda, 230 km from Calcutta, in a black Scorpio.

Behind the Scorpio, a Maruti Gypsy carrying his police escorts halts on the dusty road. Behind the police vehicle is an Armada, with 10 of his trusted lieutenants.

In tight black jeans, bright yellow shirt and grey pointed shoes with buckles, Choudhury hardly looks a politician as he walks up to the small dais.

On the loudspeaker, his supporters are praising him as the man who has changed the face of Behrampore, the leader to whom people turn in their need, the job provider.

Adulation over, Choudhury positions himself in front of the microphone, then raises a hand. The cheering crowd falls silent.

“I live in Behrampore town. If I am a murderer, how come people voted for my party so hugely that we won all the 23 seats in the Behrampore municipality polls last year?” he says.

The crowd of Congress workers bursts into applause.

Welcome to Choudhury-land where no one denies he has worked for the development of his constituency, be it roads and bridges, or a bus terminus at Kandi. He is also the symbol of the anti-CPM campaign.

Over the past decade, Choudhury has emerged as a force in Murshidabad that the high command cannot ignore. Even a leader like Pranab Mukherjee had to find out whether Choudhury would back him before he got Sonia Gandhi’s nod for contesting from neighbouring Jangipur.

But Choudhury — who takes on Pramathesh Mukherjee of the RSP — says he is under “tremendous pressure”. One reason is the CPM and the RSP have set aside their differences to defeat the man chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee blames for bringing in a “slice of Bihar in Bengal politics”.

During last year’s panchayat polls, the two Left partners had squabbled over seats and paid dearly. Of the 60 zilla parishad seats, the Congress won 33. Of these, 13 were lost because of division of votes.

“We have learnt a lesson. We are confident of winning this time,” says Pramathesh Mukherjee.

CPM workers have fanned across the seven Assembly segments of Behrampore, particularly Behrampore, Kandi, Beldanga and Naoda where the Congress led last time, to work with the RSP cadre.

“This time we have not allowed our cadre to go to other seats to campaign for front candidates. We will defeat Adhir this time,” says Shekhar Saha, a district secretariat member of the CPM.

Choudhury, who is also the Murshidabad Congress chief, accuses the administration of creating obstacles under the ruling front’s instructions. At least 25 of his aides, including brother-in-law and district Youth Congress president Arit Majumdar, are behind bars in connection with old cases dug up this year. “It has left me terribly handicapped,” Choudhury says.

The tension is palpable. “But remember, Adhir Choudhury won with a margin of 96,000 votes in 1999. This is quite a huge a gap to narrow,” says Giasuddin Sheikh, a trader in Muslim-dominated Beldanga.

There is another reason why Choudhury is tense. Two close aides — Abdur Rashid and Akbar Kabir — have deserted him to campaign for the Left.

Yet, by most accounts, Choudhury is the man people want. He has beautified Behrampore town. He is the one they can go to with any kind of grievance.

Choudhury stresses on development while campaigning. He wants to make a dent in the CPM’s bastion of Ketugram, on the border of Murshidabad and Burdwan, and in places like Bharatpur, where the front was ahead last time.

With a tough contest on the cards, the Muslim vote — which accounts for 40 per cent of the 13 lakh electorate — has become vital. And it is the Left Front that has provided him with a weapon.

In a book written in 2002 — Muslim Samaj, Kichhu Prasangik Alochona (Muslim Society, Some relevant discussion) — Mainul Hasan, the CPM candidate from neighbouring Murshidabad constituency, had supported a uniform civil code.

Now, at meetings, particularly in Muslim-majority villages, campaigners — some of whom are religious leaders of the community — are waving the book and asking people not to vote for the Left.