NEW DELHI:

Congress lawmaker Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a feisty leader from West Bengal,
came in for a bit of praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who called him a
"fighter" after the all-party meeting on Sunday ahead of the start of the 17th Lok
Sabha.

Mr Chowdhury, who is a strong detractor of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata

Banerjee, was called by the prime minister at the end of the meeting which he had
attended as one of the Congress representatives.

PM Modi, who was to leave the conference room, called Mr Chowdhury and patted
him on his back telling others, including Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and
Anand Sharma, that he is a "fighter".

Reacting to PM Modi's remark, Mr Chowdhury told ANI, "I greeted the Prime
Minister. He then patted me on the back and said before everyone that Adhir is a
fighter. I felt happy."

"I don't have any personal enmity with anyone. We are people's representatives and
they (BJP) are also people's representatives. We will raise our voices, they will also
do. We are going to speak in Parliament, not fight in a war."

Mr Chowdhury, who has been representing Berhampore in West Bengal since 1999,
retained the seat in this year's Lok Sabha elections. He had defeated TMC's Apurba
Sarkar by over 80,000 votes.

Amid a tug of war between TMC and BJP, which made deep inroads into the state,
Chowdhury is the lone Congress MP from West Bengal, which saw a spurt in
political violence during the general elections.