By Tirthankar Mitra
Ever when Left Front government appeared to be at the height of its power and the CPI(M) was domination supreme in Bengal, results of Lok Sabha elections in Birbhum constituency have been pouring votes to Trinamool Congress in a land of red earth. Sarabdi Roy was the fresh pick of the fiery opposition leader Mamata Banerjee at that time. Roy was a leading heroine of Bengali films in 2009 .Her selection surprised the local leaders of Trinamool as also the main the ruling CPI(M). But Mamata proved right as her loyal film heroine won with handsome margin in her first poll fray.
There were repeat performances in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections by Roy. But the back to back success of the TMC’s winning candidate with a girl next door image seems to have been in the shadow of TMC’s Birbhum district chief Anubrata Mondal. Mondal’s words and deeds overshadowed the performance of his other party colleagues especially Roy. Thanks to his proximity to the party supremo Banerjee, he could not be reined in even when he overstepped his limits with his forays beyond parliamentary democracy.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee makes no secret of holding poets and litterateurs in high esteem. But things had come to such a pass she let go Mondal sans a reprimand when he made snide remarks about a line of a poem by noted poet Sankha Ghosh. . Mamata allowed her strongman Mandal to stay in his position as the district chief despite many accusation against him by other opposition parties as also media.
The reason was Mondal’s organizational capacity. All the seven Assembly constituencies of Birbhum were in the TMC’s bag in 2021 Assembly polls. But there has been a change scene since August, 2022 after Mondal was arrested on cattle TMC smuggling charges and is cooling his heels at Tihar jail. A welcome change to the Opposition come elections, Birbhum is sans Mondal when it goes to the polls on May 13.
Roy no longer has Mandal breathing down her neck. She is on her own in this election. It is upto Roy to ensure her fourth consecutive electoral success. In her endeavour, she is aided by local TMC leader Kajal Sheikh and minister Asis Banerjee. Roy has toured the assembly constituencies extensively and she has a big appeal to the women voters.
Sheikh and Mondal had been intra-party opponents. Such has been their rivalry that party supremo Mamata Banerjee had to rein in feuding groups coming blows off and on as Sheikh tried to expand his area of influence in Mondal’s absence. If TMC is feeling Mondal’s absence, the Congress-Left too is not at all comfortable with the Congress candidate Milton Rashid.
Besides being a local boy, Rashid, has CPI(M)’s organizational support. The Congress is weak in the area. Rashid has to depend on the Left cadres for victory.. From 1971 to 2004, CPI(M) nominees had won from Birbhum. But minority community voters supported the TMC nominee en substantially in 2019 election. The Congress candidate is making all efforts to get the Muslim support back to his party from the clutches of TMC.
Even with Mondal around, the TMC nominee could not attain a lead from Dubrajpur, Suri, Rampurhat and Sainthia in 2019 polls. Roy began turning the tables on her BJP opponent after minority community voters from Hason, Muraroi and Nalhati gave her a huge lead.. TMC organisers have made massive booth preparations to ensure that Roy gets all the Muslim votes just like the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Rashid had once been a legislator from Hason. And Chowdhury, the PCC chief has set his sights on these minority dominated Assembly segments to give the TMC nominee a run for her money. Both Rashid and BJP candidate, Debtanu Bhattacharya are hurling corruption charges at Roy, the sitting MP. With several ministers together with Mondal behind the bars, the TMC nominee is on a sticky wicket. On this issue but she is placed in a better position due to the highly efficient polling machinery of her party in the Birbhum constituency.
Satabdi Roy’s advantage is that the BJP candidate filed his nomination late and the local BJP workers are not happy with his nomination. All together, TMC candidate has better prospects in this triangular contest in Birbhum constituency. (IPA Service)
