State Congress president and MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhury on Friday spoke on the integrity of Congress candidates in fray in the ongoing Assembly elections, a move that hints at underlying fears of horse-trading and defection after poll results among some political forces.

Choudhury, who was in North Dinajpur — one of the erstwhile strongholds of the Congress — to campaign for his party’s candidates, said they had fielded candidates who could not be “purchased”.

“We have taken care in selecting the candidates, and those who are in the poll fray will not sell themselves to other parties,” said the Congress leader at a public meeting in Islampur.

After the 2011 and 2016 elections, the party that has been bled the most by Trinamul is the Congress.

Over years, party leaders saw how elected representatives, right from the MPs to panchayat members, defected to Trinamul.

“This time, there is an apprehension of a similar defection, particularly if none of the parties manage to secure the magic figure. Also, on a number of occasions earlier, Congress supporters had expressed disgruntlement after the person they had voted for joined another party. There is also a chance that such defections may discourage a section of supporters to vote some other candidate out of disappointment. That is why it seems the PCC president wanted to pass a missive to supporters,” said an observer.

Earlier on Friday, Choudhury, while talking to the media at the Murshidabad district Congress office in Behrampore, replied to whether the Congress would support Trinamul.

“The (Left-Congress-ISF) alliance will come to power. There is no question of supporting Trinamul or anybody else… but if Mamata Banerjee, who is a former Congress leader, admits to her faults, her party can support us from outside,” he said.

At the public meetings, the PCC president also scoffed at Trinamul and said the party might join hands with its “old ally,” the BJP. “We have information that some Trinamul leaders are in contact with the Congress high-command. But we feel that the moment Trinamul smells danger, it will surrender to BJP,” he said.

Additional reporting by Alamgir Hossain in Behrampore