(From top) Shakeel Ahmed, Deepa Das Munshi, Adhir Chowdhury

Calcutta, April 10: Deepa Das Munshi and Adhir Chowdhury have “promised” that they would not back party dissidents in the Assembly elections, the Congress’s Bengal minder Shakeel Ahmed said today.

“Deepaji and Adhirji promised me that they would not back Independent candidates for the sake of the alliance (with the Trinamul Congress),” Ahmed told The Telegraph after talking to the Raiganj MP.

Deepa is said to be backing three Congress dissidents against Trinamul nominees in North Dinajpur, while Adhir had campaigned for two of the four Independents in Murshidabad.

Ahmed, the AICC leader in charge of the Congress’s Bengal affairs, has been camping in the city since April 8 to oversee the party’s campaign before the two phases of polling on April 18 and April 23.

The three candidates Deepa is reportedly backing are contesting from Islampur, Chopra and Hemtabad. Adhir is said to be lending his support to four party dissidents against Trinamul nominees in Sagardhigi, Bhagabangola, Hariharpara and Jalangi Assembly seats.

Deepa was not available for comment as she was away campaigning in Raiganj. Mohit Sengupta, her close aide and president of the North Dinajpur Congress, said she would not encourage party dissidents who have entered the poll fray as Independent candidates.

“Those who are contesting as Independent candidates might be our party people. But we cannot back them because they are not contesting as official Congress nominees,” he said.

“I shall not reveal the contents of my discussion with Ahmed saheb to the media,” Adhir said when asked about his conversation with the AICC leader.

Asoke Das, the Murshidabad Congress general secretary who is close to Adhir, said from Behrampore that the party’s district unit would not do anything that “hampers the electoral prospects of the Congress-Trinamul alliance”.

“All of us are optimistic about a new government under Mamatadi’s leadership after the Assembly polls,” Das said.

Adhir, who earlier in the day campaigned for the Congress dissident in Hariharpara, had similarly backed Independents in Murshidabad before the Assembly elections in 2001 and 2006 in defiance of the high command.

His reported promise to the AICC leader seems to be an indication of his losing grip over a section of party workers in Murshidabad. Last week, some party workers had put a garland of shoes on Adhir’s portrait to protest his backing of an “outsider” Congress candidate for the Bharatpur seat.

“Adhirda had once the last say in Murshidabad. But things have changed over the years. Dissidence is fast growing against him,” said a district leader who is close to Murshidabad Congress MP Mannan Hossain. Adhir and Hossain reportedly do not see eye to eye.

Sources said the two Congress MPs are under pressure from the high command to toe the party line.

“The alliance with Trinamul was struck at the instance of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. So, we will have to accept it though we are not happy with the manner in which it was done on Mamata’s terms,” a senior AICC leader said from Delhi.

Ahmed today also asked a dozen party dissidents to issue public statements about their withdrawal from the fray against official alliance nominees within the next 48 hours, failing which they would be expelled for six years.

The AICC leader made the announcement after a meeting with Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee at his Dhakuria home to discuss disciplinary action against the dissidents.

“Nearly a dozen party functionaries from Murshidabad, Malda, North Dinajpur and Cooch Behar are contesting as Independent candidates despite our repeated appeals to them to withdraw from the fray for the sake of the alliance. But since they have not responded as yet, they will be expelled within the next two days if they do not issue public statements declaring that they are not in the fray,” he said.

According to Ahmed, the public statements are necessary because the last dates for withdrawal of nominations for elections on April 18 and April 23 have passed.

April 4 was the deadline for withdrawal of nominations for the first phase of polling for 54 seats in six districts of north Bengal, while April 9 was the last date for the next phase for 50 seats in Murshidabad, Nadia and Birbhum.