Piyush Kanodia, a resident of GC Block in Salt Lake, has set up base in a banquet hall next to National English School deep in Rajarhat. As he strategises in one room with workers, in another, a tech team is working away on figures, video clips and recordings of speeches. “Election campaigns are all about social media today,” he says as he walks in and clips on a mic offered by an assistant to amplify his words for the phone recorder.
Q. You are an unfamiliar face contesting against two known faces.
I have been working in Rajarhat for 16 years since the time of Tapan Sikdar (former minister in the NDA government). I had tried getting the party nomination in 2021, but failed. During the pandemic, I visited 5,500 houses to help people. I used to stay in Dum Dum Park then. I stay in Salt Lake (GC Block) for four years now.
Q. Outgoing MLA Tapash Chatterjee had suggested that you contest against Biswajit Prasad (councillor of Dum Dum Park) first before facing up to him.
Ask him again now and see his reaction. I do not go left right like him (Chatterjee was with the CPM earlier). My party will decide where I will contest. I have no problem if he treats me as a lightweight. Tapashda will get his response on April 29 and May 4.
Q. What profession are you in?
I am a businessman. I have lost everything for being in Opposition politics. Plans were not sanctioned in my construction business. My restaurant did not get a food licence. I had a four-storeyed mall in Madhyamgram on Jessore Road which was shut down in 2018 after a year for lack of a trade licence. I was fighting cases against a bank. After the election in 2021, my mall was handed over to the bank by the police. I was implicated in a murder case. My businesses are shut since 2022.
Q. Will it not be difficult for you to speak about Trinamul’s corruption if there are aspersions of bank fraud against you?
Look at our leader Suvendu Adhikari. There are so many cases in his name. Whoever protests in Bengal will be penalised. Also, whatever cases there are in my name relate to my own business. They are not charges of misappropriation of public funds. There have been multiple Narcotics (Control Bureau, the central agency for drug law enforcement) raids against the MLA’s henchmen. Because of their proximity to him, no drugs were found in their possession.
Q. What response are you getting on the campaign trail?
I have covered 252 polling booth areas on foot. Everyone is asking if they will be able to reach the booth on polling day. There is one direction in which the wind is blowing — change. In 2011, the Left Front organised a massive rally in Brigade Parade Grounds but they also lost power the same year. That is the state of Trinamul now. People don’t need to know the candidate; they know only the lotus symbol. We are in power in 21 states. Have you seen such post-poll violence anywhere else?
Q. Are you trying to project this contest as a two-way one?
People have deserted CPM and are trusting BJP as the main Opposition party. CPM field-ey achhe sudhu BJP-r vote katar jonye. I have seen Trinamul cadres painting their own wall graffiti as well as that for the CPM candidate. Chatterjee has fielded two Independent candidates, whose chief election agents are his own councillors, Prasenjit Nag of Ward 20 and Benu Mandal of Ward 27. Yeh dar achchha hai.
Q. You got an associate of Sabyasachi Dutta, Sk. Alam, released from police custody, after which Chatterjee announced his expulsion from the party. Is the enemy’s enemy your friend?
I know him as a political activist. I had gone to the police station. The IC said there was a complaint against him. I asked for the FIR if there was a criminal case against him. Then the IC said he had only been detained and released him.
Q. What issues do you highlight?
Rajarhat roads are largely unlit. Look at this road in Narayanpur (shows a video clip of a man wading through a ditch). This is Reckjoani Rural Hospital — look at the state of its toilet. The medicine dispensary of Patharghata health centre is under lock and key (shows video clips). I had pumped a roadside tubewell to wash my face. The water quality was such that I made a reel addressing the MLA. People drink that water. Chatterjee has not done anything. This is the state of Kada bridge in Chandpur. (shows a video of a wooden bridge with several planks missing). We got the bridge barricaded to prevent an accident. A pond was being filled in Patharghata, which I noticed and alerted the press. In Tarulia, a party office has come up on a plot earmarked for a school. Babul Supriyo (Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP) was here some time ago. He himself admitted that there were no roads in the area and work would be done in the next term.