Mayor Krishna Chakraborty on Sunday issued an emotional appeal to residents of her ward to provide a lead to Trinamul Congress in the upcoming Parliamentary election on June 1.
“Three times I have failed to provide a lead. I feel insulted. I consider everyone my own. I do not take five paise from anyone. Ebar ek vote-ey holeo Kakolidi ke jetan. Ami amar ghorer lokeder kachhe abedon korchhi (Make her win even if by one vote. I am appealing to my own folk),” she said, at an indoor election meeting held in CJ Block with party candidate Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar seated by her.
MLA Sujit Bose too harped on the result being a matter of prestige for Chakraborty. “Onar sommaney Kakolidi-ke jetan. Whatever you need, I will take care of as MLA, didi will take care of in Delhi.”
Trinamul has trailed in Ward 29 in each of the last three Lok Sabha elections in which Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar emerged victorious from the Barasat constituency, under which Bidhannagar falls. “This is true of all of Salt Lake, except Duttabad — not just my ward,” Chakraborty reminded The Telegraph Salt Lake later.
Bose also questioned whether any good at all has come of 10 years of Modi’s rule. He underscored the need for an opposition in Parliamentary democracy. “They rusticated 146 Opposition MPs and passed their bills in the Parliament. This is how they steamroll democracy,” said the fire and emergency services minister, reminding listeners about the harassment faced after demonetisation, the dip in interest rates in bank and post office savings accounts, the increase in the cost of cooking gas cylinders and general price rise. “They (the central government) have reduced domestic LPG price for the time being. The price will be hiked again once the elections are over,” he told the gathering.
In Bengal, he pointed to the state government’s direct benefit transfer welfare schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar under which female applicants from the general category get Rs 1000 and reserved categories get Rs 1200 per month. “The amount is not important. What is important is Didi keeps her word,” he said to the well-heeled gathering.
He admitted that big industries did not come in the Trinamul regime but small-scale industries did. He also spoke of the improved look of the city in the vicinity of the airport, highlighting the biodiversity park that has come up along VIP Road in Dum Dum Park to protect a burrow pit by order of the National Green Tribunal. He also spoke of the area coming under a police commissionerate, improved traffic and water supply.
Pointing out that 30 per cent of the electorate was Hindi-speaking, he spoke briefly in Hindi, addressing them in the gathering. “You have lived here for generations, doing business wwin Burrabazar. Once Burrabazar became crowded, you have spread out to Salt Lake, Bangur Avenue, Kankurgachhi...,” he said, reminding them how he had helped in crossing administrative hurdles in hosting community programmes like a Holi gathering at Central Park and Rajasthan Melas, organised by two different groups.
The mayor urged Hindi-speaking residents to address the meeting. One thanked the government for installing a statue of Rana Pratap in CA Island, another recalled the help received from Bose when there was a death in the family. “Dhormer namey vote — oi din chole gechhe. Bibek diye vote korben,” the elderly man said in broken Bengali, eliciting applause. “Bengal has a lot of potential. The politics of hate will not work here,” a third member of the community said.
A Bengali lady, a member of a local meditation centre group, also spoke briefly on Chakraborty’s insistence. “We must not forget the help we got from the mayor in Covid times. There is no doubt that Trinamul will win this time. The only doubt is Ward 29,” she said.
The meeting started an hour and a half late as Ghosh Dastidar was attending, in Chakraborty’s words, “a discussion with intellectuals” elsewhere and the mayor had to do her best to make the audience wait. Tea and snacks were being served at regular intervals. She even berated a party worker for starting to collect signatures on an attendance sheet, sending out a signal that the show of support by way of attendance would remain anonymous.
“Such meetings need to be organised in such air-conditioned indoor spaces as the elite class would not attend street-corner meetings,” she told The Telegraph Salt Lake on the sidelines.
Ghosh Dastidar tried to steer the focus of the meeting to larger issues, pointing to the larger canvas of a Parliamentary election. “This is a battle to save India. Can we live the way we want to, eat what we want to, dress the way we want to? This is not a battle only for rice, water and free ration,” she said, pointing to her experience of traveling to sites of atrocities in BJP-ruled states across the country, be it Manipur or Hathras (in Uttar Pradesh). “They are talking of One Nation, One Election (the move to synchronise Parliamentary and Assembly elections). They will add One Religion also. The diversity of this country will be a thing of the past,” she warned.
Write to saltlake@abp.in
