Satgachhia, April 26: The voters of Satgachhia are agreed on one thing: they want an MLA and not a chief minister ? not any kind of minister.

Jyoti Basu no longer contests polls but to the people of his former constituency, every election is another occasion to remember the man and his style. And this portends trouble for the CPM.

“At least she is there to listen to our complaints,” Anjali Paik of Nischindapur says about Trinamul candidate and sitting MLA Sonali Guha. “She isn’t like Jyotibabu who would rarely visit Satgachhia after winning an election.”

CPM leaders are desperately trying to convince the voters that they won’t have any complaints if they back their candidate. Kabita Koyal would never become chief minister ? she’ll stay the “lady next door’’ that she is now.

“What’s your problem? Kabita will serve as an MLA and work for Satgachhia. You can’t compare her to Jyotibabu. She’ll look after the interests of the constituency,’’ CPM leader Binod Debnath has been explaining to the voters.

Basu’s prolonged absences because of his preoccupations at Writers’ Buildings did not go down well with the ordinary voter in this South 24-Parganas constituency. The man who ruled Bengal for over 23 years hardly had the time to listen to people’s grievances on his home turf.

And six years after he quit the chief minister’s chair, the voters are not letting the CPM forget this.

After Basu stepped down, his party had fielded his poll agent Gokul Bairagi from Satgachhia in the 2001 Assembly polls. Bairagi’s was a familiar face here because he oversaw Basu’s campaigns. He lost to Guha by over 6,000 votes.

Ask anyone in Chingripota whom they would vote for and the nonagenarian in Salt Lake is invariably dragged into the conversation.

“We want an MLA, not a minister. We haven’t seen any development in the area for years. In the 1990s, it was almost impossible to get even the MLA’s certificate that one may need to get someone admitted to hospital or school. We need a legislator who is accessible,’’ says Sanatan Giri of Buita village.

Who will make it then, Koyal or Guha? “I don’t know. Anybody who promises to be at our side will get votes,’’ says Giri, a farmer who owns about four bighas.

Anjali Paik makes her displeasure plain when she was asked what she expected from the CPM.

“It’s not a question of CPM or Trinamul. I am convinced that it is my husband and not a political party who will support our family. We remain without proper water supply and electricity, and this will continue. The only consolation is that our MLA is often seen in our constituency. We never saw Jyotibabu here,” she says.

The Basu factor may be a thorn in the CPM’s flesh, but how confident is Guha?

The CPM has already begun a whisper campaign against her. It goes like this: The MLA is out of Mamata Banerjee’s good books and the Trinamul supremo doesn’t want her to win this time.

“What Didi did to Dipak Ghosh by fielding him against Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is exactly what is happening in Satgachhia. Mamata Banerjee is not serious about Sonali Guha’s campaign,” a CPM leader says.

Guha also has the tiresome job of explaining to voters why Didi didn’t come to campaign before them.

“I had urged Mamatadi to come here. But as you know, she is too busy with other constituencies. She wanted to come but couldn’t make it. Anyway, I have her blessings ? don’t listen to what the CPM leaders say,” she declares.

The CPM has stolen a march on this score: it’s got chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to speak at a rally here.