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ELECTIONS '96

Campaign Trail/Tara Shankar Sahay

'The CPM is doomed because the Trinamul has bloomed'

In the highly fissile atmosphere of West Bengal politics, aggressive campaigning is the name of the game. And frayed tempers have spilled over to the Jadavpur parliamentary constituency, where the fight is between two women, candidates of the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Trinamul Congress.

The rivals are Malini Bhattacharya of the CPM and sitting MP Krishna Bose of the Trinamul Congress. Bose, who was in the Congress during the last election, had defeated the CPM candidate by 13,638 votes. For Bhattacharya, the shocking defeat was particularly bitter since she had earlier been elected from the same seat. As a result, both have overlooked much of the 'dignified' campaigning associated with women candidates, and have gone straight for each other's jugular.

Jadavpur's notable peculiarity is that it has one of the highest percentage of women voters in the country. According to the CPM election office, female voters constitute a whopping 48 per cent of the approximately 850,000 voters. The constituency has seven assembly segments -- Behala West, Behala East, Mograhat West, Baruipur, Kabitirtha and Bishnupur East and Javapur. Kabitirtha and Mograhat West are dominated by Muslim voters.

Despite the strident campaigns of the two rivals, it appears that a large section of the voters either do not want to disclose whom they are going to vote for or are still undecided. Bapi Ghoshal, who has a shop on the Central Market road, said the fall of the United Front government at the centre has made him unsure about his choice. He had voted for Bhattacharya last time and was surprised that she had lost. While much of his enthusiasm for the CPM had waned, he was not in a hurry to cast his vote for Bose because "Trinamul is an untested commodity". He had been monitoring the activities of the TC chief Mamata Banerjeeand he was impressed. But...

Waiting to catch a minibus next to the Jadavpur police station, Keya Mitra, a college student, said she wanted to vote for the TC candidate but would take a final decision when the campaign is over. (Jadavpur is going to the poll on February 28).

"I am still evaluating the political messages of the CPM and the TC," she said.

At the market, a group of young men carrying the red hammer-and-sickle symbol of the CPM are trying to convince a group of bystanders why they should vote for Bhattacharya. The bystanders merely shake their heads and look bored to the non-stop monologue of the CPM activists.

"What," we ask the CPM activists, "exactly is Bhattacharya's unique selling point?"

The CPM activists look extremely offended. And for the next 25 minutes launch into a speech about their party's 'secularism', the 'achievements of the Left front government' and the like.

Bhattacharya, we are informed, is briefly available at the CPM election office at Dr K S Ray road. Asked about her election issues she says it is basically a fight against 'communal elements in the country' which 'is the foremost danger to our democracy.' The TC stands completely exposed about its communal tinge -- has it not allied with the BJP? Vowing to fight communalism of all kinds, Bhattacharya said she would carry on the developmental work on Jadavpur railway station.

Bhattacharya, who teaches English at the Jadavpur University, was surrounded by a group of students who wanted to know what assessment we had made in the constituency. Their 'Malinidi', they asserted, would win comfortably this time.

Meanwhile, the Mamata Banerjee phenomenon has also affected some parts of Jadavpur. Even though Bose was not available in Jadavpur, her party workers said the TC candidate would retain the seat 'despite the strong-arm tactics of the CPM.'

Bulbuli Bose, a TC activist, said the party movement was so infectious that even veteran CPM workers had been admiring it. "The CPM is doomed because the Trinamul has bloomed,'' she chanted, adding that the large number of women voters would vote for her party.

Habipur Rahman is the village tailor in the Bariupur assembly segment. Habibu's wife Farida Rahman was at first reluctant to talk about whom she would vote for. But when proded by her husband, she said: "Mamata bhalo kintu shay BJP-Er shaathe mile gecche' (Mamata is a good girl but she has joined hands with the BJP).

Three huts away, Bilkees, a wizened old woman, echoed the same sentiments. Her son, who owns a small shop in Calcutta's Dhakuria area, appeared quite disturbed that the TC had made an alliance with the BJP. Like him, many Muslims cannot understand why a person like Mamata Banerjee, who is in the forefront of all the people's movements, became entangled with the saffron party. If the Muslims in Jadavpur do not get over this grievance, the CPM candidate may romp home in style.

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