The electoral battle for Barrackpore has turned into a high-stakes showdown between legal prowess and cinematic fame. On Sunday morning, as both TMC candidate Raj Chakraborty and BJP’s Kaustav Bagchi hit the streets for campaigning, the political atmosphere turned electric. Kaustav Bagchi, a lawyer-turned-politician, launched a fierce verbal attack on the sitting MLA, vowing to defeat him by a massive margin of 50,000 votes.

Kaustav’s primary line of attack was the “outsider” tag. Speaking to the media during his roadshow, Kaustav claimed, “Raj Chakraborty is nowhere to be seen when the people of Barrackpore are in distress. He doesn’t even live here. He is like a migratory bird who only visits during the elections.” He emphasized that the residents of Barrackpore are tired of ‘celebrity culture’ and want a leader who belongs to their soil and understands their local issues.

Raj Chakraborty, undeterred by the bravado, countered the claims during his own door-to-door campaign. “I don’t need to respond to empty threats. My work in Barrackpore speaks for itself,” Raj said, pointing toward the developmental projects initiated during his tenure. He dismissed Kaustav’s comments as a desperate attempt to stay relevant in the headlines. As the 2026 Assembly elections approach, Barrackpore has become a symbol of the larger TMC-BJP rivalry, where the glitz of Tollywood is being challenged by the gritty rhetoric of the opposition.