The CPM party office in baranagar

BARANAGAR
WITHDREW

Six contests, five in bag: Where ‘the political giant’ tasted his only ‘defeat’ but savoured koi maachher jhol with rice

To Baranagar, Jyoti Basu was one of its own. So the Congress tried blatant rigging.

When guns and bombs captured the constituency’s booths in the tainted 1972 elections, Basu withdrew in protest ——- suffering his only “defeat” in 11 Assembly polls in Bengal.

This seat on Calcutta’s northern fringes had been Basu’s home turf, from where he had contested six Assembly polls since Independent India’s first election in 1952. He won the first five.

In January 1952, he defeated a mighty opponent, Congress minister Harendranath Roy Chowdhury. He kept winning till the mid-term polls of 1971, before pulling out his candidature on voting day in 1972 and switching to Satgachhia for good.

Yet he remained close to his old constituency and its people throughout his life.

Among his most faithful associates were the Roys of Baranagar. Party veteran Kalyan Roy, now 63, proudly remembers his days as a 25-year-old in 1972, when he campaigned for Basu.

“He was an icon, a political giant,” said Roy. “The people of Baranagar had the privilege of being very close to Jyotibabu, the person and the leader. He was not the chief minister then, so he was able to gel better with the people.”

Basu played a key role in organising mass movements, such as the tram fare hike protests in 1953, the teachers’ agitation in 1954, the resistance to a Bengal-Bihar merger proposal in 1956, and the food movement in 1959. Baranagar was a source of strength for him during all these movements.

In 1967, the Congress lost power in Bengal and the United Front —— a coalition of the CPM, CPI, Forward Bloc, Bangla Congress and the RSP ——- formed the government, with Basu as deputy chief minister. Mid-term elections in 1971 saw the CPM emerge as the largest single party with 113 seats out of 280 and form the United Left Front with the RSP. But Basu’s claim to form the government was rejected.

During the 1972 elections, held under President’s rule, the Congress resorted to violence.

“There was gunfire and bombing. The Congress had taken complete control of the election set-up and was freely rigging the polls,” said Gopal Banerjee, 56, a CPM leader from Baranagar who had accompanied Basu on a round of the constituency as an 18-year-old that day.

“Jyotibabu visited a few polling stations and decided to withdraw his candidature. ‘This cannot be tolerated,’ he told us,” Banerjee said.

Basu stayed close to Baranagar till his final years. “He would visit frequently, mostly for political programmes. The last time he came was in 2006, to inaugurate a party office,” a local committee member said.

The Roys remember Basu’s preference for simple, home-cooked meals. “He used to love koi maachher jhol with rice, which my aunt Anuradha (now chairperson of the Baranagar municipality) made for him. He was very down to earth,” Roy recalled.

Referring to the political turmoil of the ’70s, Roy’s uncle Chandan Roy had once asked Basu over lunch: “When will the tyranny end?”

“Jyotibabu replied calmly, ‘Ei kaal raatri ketey jaabey, bhor ashchhey (The dark night will pass, dawn is about to break)’. I shall never forget that. It’s become my mantra for all difficult times in life,” Roy said.

The party office in Satgachhia. Pictures by Anindya Shankar Ray

Satgachhia
Victorious

Five contests, five in bag: Where he held sway like a monarch but could not prevent the steady slide in margins

To Satgachhia, Jyoti Basu was always the chief minister first and their MLA second. Some accepted it as a fact of life, others probably didn’t.

Starting with 1977, Basu was elected from this constituency in South 24-Parganas five times on the trot, but each time with a lower vote share than the previous election.

The 1977 polls were historic, catapulting the Left Front to power for the first time. Basu, then 63, was seen by Satgachhia as urbane but a little distant. He defeated the Congress’s Jumman Ali Mollah, winning nearly 79 per cent of the votes.

“The day we came to know Jyotibabu was going to contest from here, we were sure things were going to change for the better. So much has changed under him. Satgachhia has become a semi-urban centre from the backward rural area it used to be,” said Surjyakanta Nashkar, a comrade in his 40s.

Although he didn’t mingle with the masses as much as he used to in Baranagar, the voters did not mind, claimed Biswanath Pramanik — a view others contested.

Pramanik, 58, said: “He was the chief minister, after all. There were security concerns and he also was a lot busier. He couldn’t possibly have devoted as much time for us as he did for Baranagar. We knew that and we understood his priority, which was Bengal.”

He recalled Basu’s first visit as chief minister to the constituency.

“He told us it was our government, and that its policies would be implemented not from Writers’ alone but from the fields and factories where its strength lay —- and with our help, the help of the people.”

“It meant a lot, his commitment to the masses,” Pramanik said. “It made us feel wanted and cared-for.”

Still, somewhere down the road, there must have been a disconnect between Basu and his new constituents. From 79 per cent in 1977, his vote share had dropped by a third to a little over 52 per cent in 1996, the last time he contested.

He was just nine per cent ahead of Congress candidate Chitta Ranjan Bag, compared with his victory margin of nearly 68 per cent in 1977. The Trinamul Congress’s Sonali Guha has won the seat twice since then.

“Jyotibabu hardly ever visited the constituency and dropped by like a monarch. His shortcomings had their ramifications. The Opposition gained in strength steadily from the 1980s. Nobody can be certain, of course, but he might have lost if he had contested from here in 2001,” said a resident who did not wish to be named.

“He might have been the people’s leader for Baranagar. He did not come remotely close in Satgachhia,” he added.Despite the “shortcomings”, when Basu decided to step down in November 2000, a pall descended on Satgachhia.

“It was like losing a close relative. We had been able to boast, for 23 years, that we elect the most powerful man in the state. That glory we lost, possibly for ever,” said Tarak Parui.

“Once Satgachhia used to send Jyotibabu to the Assembly. Now it sends Sonali Guha. Need I say more?” asked a resident.