Tamluk: It is a fight between three ‘outsiders’. There's the person who gave Mamata Banerjee her “Khela Hobe” slogan and the one who made the Trinamool Congress supremo’s life miserable while he was on chair. It's a contest where a non-contestant is hogging all the limelight!
Welcome to the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat of Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal, which is going to the polls in the sixth phase on May 25.
The fight for Tamluk has essentially boiled down to former Calcutta High Court judge and now BJP candidate Abhijit Gangopadhyay versus Trinamool Congress candidate Debangshu Bhattacharya and CPI(M)’s advocate candidate Sayan Banerjee. Incidentally, none of them belong to any of the seven Assembly segments that make up the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat.
Abhijit has been a hot potato for the Trinamool Congress since November 2021 when, as a judge of the High Court, he had ordered a CBI investigation into the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) scam. Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet colleague Partha Chatterjee, as many as two TMC MLAs, a couple of party functionaries, and several serving and former officials of the Commission are already behind bars in connection with the ongoing investigation.
When Abhijit Gangopadhyay chose to demit office and take a leap in politics, he chose BJP. And the saffron party chose Tamluk for him. Why? The answer lies with that non-contestant, whose shadow has simply gotten longer as polling day inches close. The person is, Suvendu Adhikari.
Of the seven Assembly segments that make up Tamluk, Suvendu emerged as the giant killer in the 2021 Assembly elections by defeating Mamata Banerjee from the Nandigram seat. Two other seats, Haldia and Moyna, are also with the saffron party. The rest four namely Nandakumar, Mahishadal, Tamluk and Panskura Purba, are held by the TMC.
Suvendu had earlier been a giant slayer of sorts when in the 2009 general elections he defeated CPIM’s Laxman Seth from Tamluk. The seat was always considered a favourable one for the Left. Even in 1984, after the death of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, CPIM’s Satyagopal Mishra won convincingly here. Barring once in 1996, CPIM candidates have been winning from Tamluk from 1980 onwards till 2009, when Suvendu put the brakes on. But, many credit Suvendu’s 2009 win to the March 2007 Nandigram firing incident, which left at least 14 villagers dead and scores injured.
The villagers were protesting a land acquisition move by the then Left Front-ruled Bengal government to set up a chemical hub and turn Nandigram into a Special Economic Zone. Though the Left Front tried to explain that no land acquisition was happening without the consent of the people, the opposition Trinamool Congress had smelt blood.
Suvendu being at the forefront in the agitation, he became Mamata Banerjee’s natural choice when elections came knocking in two years. Laxman Seth, CPIM’s six-time MP from Tamluk, had to bite dust. In the 2014 elections, again Suvendu won. But, this time Mamata wanted her young lieutenant more in the state than in Delhi. Suvendu successfully contested from the Nandigram Assembly seat in the 2016 state elections and in the bye-election of 2016, Suvendu’s brother Dibyendu won from Tamluk. Dibyendu also won the 2019 polls on a TMC ticket.
The following year was politically significant for Tamluk and Purba Medinipur district as a whole. Relations between Suvendu and TMC started to turn sour and in December 2020, barely a couple of months before the Assembly elections of 2021, Suvendu defected to BJP. The move practically altered the political balance of the district and also saw him defeating Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram.
So, when BJP chose a seat for Abhijit Gangopadhyay, they found Tamluk to be the safest. Under the watchful eyes of now turned BJP leader, Suvendu Adhikari.
For Debangshu Bhattacharya, the real opposition is again, Suvendu Adhikari. Though Trinamool Congress is trying hard to debunk BJP’s campaign of projecting an image of Abhijit Gangopadhyay as a ‘crusader against corruption’ because of his judgments in connection with the SSC scam, Debangshu knows that his actual opponent is that very non-contesting candidate.
“I know my real contest is against Suvendu Adhikari. I am confident that welfare projects of the state government like Lakshmir Bhandar and others will definitely make a difference, but we will need to ensure leads from Nandigram and Moyna segments. If that happens, there will be no looking back,” Debangshu said.
Debangshu knows BJP, or to be precise Suvendu Adhikari, has a strong grip over these Assembly segments and if Trinamool manages to make a significant dent in here, it could be a very tight contest in Tamluk.
For Sayan Banerjee, the task is really uphill. The Left has been diminishing in Tamluk since Suvendu won in 2009 and the bleeding never stopped. The shift of Left votes to BJP has been a steady affair and it is beyond the capability of Sayan to bring a halt to it. Instead, he is trying to address the core issues of the seat.
“It is a well known fact that many in Purba Medinipur are engaged in growing betel leaves and flowers. But, neither betel leaves nor flowers are officially recognised as agriculture produce by the state government. There is no effort to preserve betel leaves. Since the Mamata Banerjee government never recognised betel leaves or flowers as agricultural produce, there is no scope of declaring a minimum support price. The farmers, whose numbers are in thousands, are simply exposed to middlemen and private procurers. We are trying to go to the core issues of Tamluk and not just concentrate on Suvendu Adhikari,” says Sayan.
But, can the CPI(M) ignore Suvendu? And, if the Left at all manages to make any mark in the elections, will it not help Trinamool by eating into the BJP votes? Sayan is optimistic about the Left votes coming back to flock, but he also cannot ignore Suvendu.
The BJP is banking heavily on Suvendu Adhikari for the two Purba Medinipur seats of Tamluk and Kanthi, irrespective of their candidates. The Trinamool Congress is craning their necks to devise last minute plans to divert votes from Suvendu’s bastion. The Left is also hoping to make hay in the cross-currents between Suvendu’s BJP and Mamata’s Trinamool Congress. Non-contestant Suvendu Adhikari’s shadow has only grown taller in Tamluk.
Read more
- MCC Violation: EC Debars Abhijit Gangopadhyay From Campaigning For 24-Hours
- 'Privacy Violation': BJP's Rekha Patra Moves NCW Against TMC's 'Khela Hobe Fame' Debangshu
- Suvendu Adhikari Asks EC To Take Cognizance Of 'Threat' Issued By TMC's Hamidul Rehman
