“Didi hobey didima/ Pradhan Mantri hobe na/ Tai Trinamool-er jora phool-e vote dio na (Didi will be a grandmother/ But she will never be the Prime Minister/ So, don’t cast your vote for the twin flowers).”
The lyrics are from one of the 150-odd songs that kabiyal Asim Sarkar has been singing at most of his campaign rallies since the BJP parachuted the 64-year-old minstrel and Haringhata MLA as its Bardhaman Purba nominee.
The song’s theme is the same as what the other 41 BJP candidates have been saying while urging people to vote — this election is not the Assembly polls and Mamata Banerjee has no chance to be the Prime Minister.
“But when we listen to his song, it gives us a different type of pleasure as we connect with the words easily,” said Tarakrishna Gayen, a resident of Mahesdhanga camp area of East Burdwan’s Memari, one of the seven constituencies under the Bardhaman Purba Lok Sabha seat.
“When he speaks, he sings. We always find a tune in his voice while conversing casually,” added the 55-year-old farmer.
While other candidates irrespective of political affinities are searching for apt slogans for their campaigns, Asim is natural with his style.
He has also penned a song for his main rival and Trinamool candidate Sharmila Sarkar, a psychiatrist who left her government job at the Medical College in Calcutta to fight for Mamata Banerjee’s party.
“O maa Sharmila Sarkar/ Tumi naki manorog biseshagga daktar/ Tumi naki odrishyo mon dekhte paro/ Chor dekhte chokh nai tomar (O Sharmila Sarkar/ Aren’t you a psychiatrist/ You can see the invisible mind/ You don’t have an eye to see the thieves),” Asim belted out the song while speaking to this correspondent in Memari.
Asim said his songs were the best campaign tool to easily connect with people rather than going for long speeches or inflammatory comments. He has a team of eight who play musical instruments and chorus.
The singer, who is popular in rural Bengal, tried to connect with the people with songs on several current political issues such as Sandeshkhali, the teachers’ recruitment scam, and arrests of senior Trinamool leaders like Anubrata Mondal, Partha Chatterjee and Jyoti Priya Mallick.
“It is certainly a challenge to win this seat. The BJP has no MLA in its seven Assembly seats. There are some reasons behind my party’s decision to send me here. I am not an outsider here. I have been coming to dozens of villages to perform my Kabigaan for the past 30 years,” he added.
A source in the BJP said the party had surveyed at least three times before selecting candidates for this tough seat from where Trinamool’s incumbent Sunil Kumar Mondal was elected in 2014 and 2019.
“Here, 10 per cent of the voters are from the Matua community. Apart from this, all seven Assembly segments have a significant Scheduled Caste population. He spent many years in Kalna at the ashram of spiritual guru Bhaba Pagla and our candidate is one of his disciples. So, his candidature for this seat is significant strategically,” said Bijan Ghosh, the BJP’s SC-ST morcha president in Kalna.
Bardhaman Purba is a reserved seat for SCs as 31 per cent of its population belongs to the community. A CPM bastion of yesteryears, it has around 24 per cent minority voters.
Sharmila Sarkar said the BJP was living in a fool’s paradise to think that the kabiyal would win the seat for the party. “Who said that the BJP will get the advantage of Namosudra (SC) votes as they have fielded him (Asim)? I also belong to the same community and people of this area are happy with the development schemes of Mamata Banerjee,” said Sharmila.
Though the BJP believes that the Matuas would vote for Asim, they might be in for a big surprise, said multiple sources. It would not be a cakewalk as CPM candidates secured 25 per cent votes across the Lok Sabha segment in the panchayat elections last year. The party has fielded Nirab Khan, the secretary of the CPM’s primary teachers’ wing ABPTA.
Bardhaman Purba votes today