A tea seller along Mamata Banerjee’s march route said the BJP could have avoided raising the price of cooking gas, arguing that the party was oblivious to the plight of the poor.
A trader in bathroom accessories along the same stretch said the LPG shortage had been triggered by a global crisis and that it was unfair to blame Narendra Modi for it.
As the chief minister led a Trinamool rally in the heart of Calcutta on Monday afternoon, conversations with bystanders suggested the jury was still out on whether the LPG crisis would be a factor in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Giant cut-outs of gas cylinders and empty kitchen utensils were among the props at the rally, which began at College Square and culminated at the Dorina crossing in Esplanade, where Mamata launched a scathing attack on the BJP.
Alongside LPG, she raised several other issues, such as the ongoing revision of electoral rolls and the transfer of senior bureaucrats and police officers by the Election Commission.
The crowd looked formidable. Thousands had lined up along the barricades set up along the entire route to catch a glimpse of Mamata.
“Tell me, what on earth can anyone do if a war breaks out? What is happening in the Gulf is a global crisis. Modi did not start the war,” said Pramod Jaiswal, the bathroom accessories trader on Nirmal Chunder Street.
Jaiswal’s family traces its roots to Uttar Pradesh. Elders in the family moved to Calcutta many years ago, and the shop is around 30 years old. He said he was more bothered by the dent in business caused by the rally.
“I could not sell a single product on Monday. Now that the elections are here, all parties will keep organising rallies. The rallies will mean more loss of income for people like us,” said Jaiswal, who lives in Chiria More off BT Road.
About 150 metres down the road, Md Tabrez stood on a raised platform that serves as a tea stall, recording Mamata on his phone as she crossed the spot.
“We have been forced to shift to coal. One 19kg LPG cylinder is being sold for ₹4,000, more than double the actual price. We cannot afford so much,” he said.
“The government should not have raised the price of cooking gas. It shows that the BJP is against the poor. It serves the interests of the wealthy,” said Tabrez.
At the Dorina crossing, Mamata levelled the same allegation. “You should have spent money to give some subsidy on LPG. Instead, you spent it to bring people to fill up Brigade Parade Ground,” she said, targeting the BJP.
Four women, each with children in Class X at Calcutta Girls’ High School, were among those standing behind the barricades, waiting for Mamata to pass. Their daughters are writing their ICSE exams.
“We have been able to book cylinders. The crisis was created by panic,” said one of them.
“We were in the same area and had some free time. We thought of catching a glimpse of her,” said another woman.
The owner of a fast-food centre said he was left with LPG stock that would barely last two days and that he would have to shut shop after that.
“I will not buy at an inflated cost because I cannot charge more from my customers. There is a genuine shortage of commercial cylinders and we are the sufferers,” he said.
Murtaza Sadikot, a trader of rubber products, was standing outside his store on Lenin Sarani, watching the rally pass.
He said the LPG crisis was a temporary problem, but the SIR was not.
“The LPG crisis will end soon. But SIR will have a long-lasting impact. The harassment of genuine voters must stop,” said Sadikot, a Topsia resident. He attended an SIR hearing, after which his name was included in the voter rolls.