Benachity, April 30: He was a Congress Seva Dal activist in charge of Indira Gandhi’s security when she came to Durgapur for an AICC session about 40 years ago.

He is now the CPM’s poster boy there.

Biprendu Chakraborty is Bhajanda to everyone in town ? from the rickshaw-puller dozing off at the bend to the guy at the corner pan shop or the local doctor ? because he is an all-weather man. People ask him to fix the menu for weddings, not because he is known to be a culinary expert.

As an acknowledgement of his soaring popularity, the CPM plucked him out of the local municipal corporation’s mayor-in-council and fielded him in Durgapur II.

Chakraborty is embarrassed when asked if Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee knows he is called Durgapur’s mukhyamantri (chief minister). “Don’t ask me all this,” he blushes. “For the past 15 years, I have been closely associated with civic and trade union work without bothering about political differences. That may be the reason why people have accepted me.”

Bishnu Khanra, a rickshaw-puller, would vouch for that. “When I fell sick and could not work for months, he supported me, financially and otherwise.”

That Chakraborty is “always available” makes him popular, but will that fetch him enough votes? Sitting MLA and Trinamul Congress candidate Apurba Mukherjee doesn’t think so.

To him it is not such a big issue. “I never visited any locality without a rhyme or reason. If there was a need, I attended to that. The CPM is spreading canards to tarnish my image.”

But the issue of closeness with voters could become real big for Mukherjee because the Congress is also in the fray. If there is an equal division of Opposition votes between Mukherjee and the Congress’s Mrigen Pal, the 2001 margin of 9,477 votes would not seem as comfortable.

Probably mindful of that, the MLA adds: “I was never invited to inauguration of big projects or foundation stone-laying ceremonies because the CPM wanted to alienate me from the people.”

Chakraborty says: “I had even helped Apurba’s brother when he wanted it. I had a responsibility as a human being. He simply wasted the five years he got.”

Power cuts, bad roads or lack of water do not seem as much of a bother for the voters as whether their MLA is approachable. The town is wearing a new look with shopping malls and hangouts coming up and “the municipality is there to take care of the civic woes’’, says a young man.

“We need the MLA for certificates or ration card problems. Bhajanda would be our man next door,’’ says Bipin Mukhoti, who works in a departmental store.

That should worry Mukherjee.

Satish Jha, who runs a car spares business, says: “I don’t need an MLA or an MP to survive. But I never saw the Trinamul Congress legislator in five years. He disappeared.”

But, then the CPM could beat the CPM here, say some. The Chakraborty camp does not share the best of relations with the one led by mayor Ra- thin Roy. Durgapur’s Bhajanda scoffs at the suggestion. “No way.”