IN THE WEB: Trinamul Congress chief whip Sovandeb Chattopadhyay at work on the walls of his constituency. Picture by Amit Datta

The message from Writers? Buildings is loud: the days of pre-poll graffiti are over. The writing on the walls around town is clear: long live pre-poll graffiti.

The government versus party divide is plastered on the streets, from Jadavpur to Kankurgachhi, with the city walls getting their usual dose of defacement.

Winking at the government declaration to ban poll graffiti was a wall in Jadavpur, bearing the name of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in giant letters. ?We are not bothered about what the Election Commission says. All that matters to us is what our party says,? said Abhijit Ganguly, a local committee member of the CPM.

On Monday, home secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy had said the state government, acting on a request from the Election Commission, had decided to ban graffiti on the walls of all public and private buildings all over the state. He had said the ban would be enforced by the police and offenders would be made to clean up the mess. If this failed, police or the local municipal authority would have to clean the walls. The Election Commission cannot issue any such directive till the poll dates are announced, he added.

?No one will touch a word of what is written on these walls,? claimed Ganguly in Jadavpur. ?Whatever has to be done will be done after the polls, unless our party tells us otherwise.?

Tuesday also found Trinamul Congress chief whip Sovandeb Chattopadhyay at work on the walls, brush in hand. A punch of poetry and caricature on a Rashbehari wall read: ?If I dirty the walls, the people will get angry; so, for everyone, I am drawing pictures.?

The reaction of the Election Commission or Writers? Buildings to this artistic defacement is awaited, but Trinamul leader Mamata Banerjee has already blessed Chattopadhyay?s outpourings and her graffiti gang.

The Congress decided to play the follow-Alimuddin-Street-rather-than-Writers? line, with Pradesh Congress Committee working president Pradip Bhattacharya saying: ?If the CPM-led government imposes a ban on poll graffiti and the party is reluctant to obey it, then why should we??