Haripada and brother Bishnupada

Keshiari/Ghatal, April 29: At 88, Jamini Jana faces one of the toughest posers of her life.

Who should she vote for in the panchayat polls?

Her two sons, Haripada, 52, and Bishnupada, 49, have been pitted against each other in Kumarhati village.

Haripada is the Trinamul Congress candidate and Bishnupada the CPM’s.

“I have been voting for over 50 years in Lok Sabha, Assembly and panchayat polls. When I was sick, my sons carried me on their shoulders to the polling booth,” said Jamini.

“This year, maybe I won’t vote,” she added after a long pause. “Who do I vote for?”

Haripada and Bishnupada live in the same house, though it was partitioned 17 years ago.

“The two families are not enemies,” said Haripada’s wife Rekha. “My husband and his brother have the best of relations. They may be rival candidates but that has not affected our relationship.”

Rekha has told her husband “strictly” not to drag politics home.

Tanusree and daughter Sutapa

Haripada, who owns a cycle store at Keshiari market, is contesting an election for the first time. “We are traditionally anti-CPM. We supported the Congress earlier and shifted loyalties to Trinamul a few years ago,” he said.

Bishnupada, who does pisciculture in a leased pond, said his association with the fishermen’s union brought him close to the CPM.

“We were attracted to Congress and Trinamul politics for a long time. But a long association with the Citu-led fishermen’s union has made me a CPM supporter.”

He is “feeling bad”, though, about having to fight against his brother. “I have told him that we will remain united as brothers for ever, whatever the results are,” Bishnupada said.

In Ghatal’s Manoharpur, Trinamul candidate Tanusree Chanak, 42, is contesting against her daughter, Sutapa Ballav, 25.

Sutapa, who went to live half a kilometre away after her marriage, was elected as a CPM candidate in 2003. Trinamul persuaded her mother to fight her this time.

Tanusree, her husband Satyen, an autorickshaw driver, and her five daughters were CPM supporters until a few months ago.

Satyen explained the reason for the split in the family’s political preferences. “Our house, on the bank of the Jumi, is damaged by floods every year. But the party didn’t help us get accommodation under the Indira Awas Yojana.”

Sutapa said her parents had received Rs 4,000 from the government to repair the house after last year’s floods. “As a panchayat member, I cannot show bias towards my parents,” she said.

“I will not go to my parents’ house until the polls are over,” she added.

Tanusree said she would feel sorry if her daughter loses. “In 2003, I was part of her victory procession.”