A convoy of 15 cars and over 200 motorbikes meanders through village roads under the blazing sun with a smiling leader in white dhoti-kurta on a hood-less jeep waving at people along the roads.

A bespectacled man in white kurta-pyjama gets into a Scorpio, heads for a public meeting, sits among the audience unnoticed and finally takes the stage to deliver his speech as the sun sets.

The two different settings in two corners of Bankura district — Bondhanda in the south and Saltora in the north, a distance of over 150km — define the battle for Bankura, where Congress candidate Subrata Mukherjee is banking on his personal charisma to take on the might of the machinery behind the CPM’s Basudev Acharya.

“Look at the enthusiasm of the people…. Such a convoy is a record in the state,” boasts Mukherjee, his deep tan proof of the 16-18 hours he is clocking on the campaign trail every day, as the vehicles crawl through the tribal belt of Raipur along the Bankura-West Midnapore border.

“We don’t believe in such roadshows. We work consistently among the people through the year and the poll results reflect that,” says Acharya, representing the constituency since 1980. He campaigns for about four hours in the morning and then again after 4pm, when the sun is milder.

But Mukherjee’s crowdpuller roadshows have cemented the tentative Congress-Trinamul alliance in Bankura and added a dash of excitement to the 2009 battle.

Papu Dasgupta, an electrician in Bankura town, has noticed a shift. “This time it’s going to be difficult for the CPM. Don’t get surprised if Bankura springs a change.”

In terms of numbers, for there to be change, Mukherjee has to bridge a gap of 232,329 votes on April 30. In 2004, Acharya polled 417,798 votes against Deboprasad Kundu of the Trinamul Congress, who got 187,469 votes.

“This is my biggest achievement till now. I have turned a lost seat into a close battle,” says the Congress challenger, who is banking on three factors — over 60 per cent change in the constituency’s profile since 2004, his own charisma and the backward district tag on Bankura.

Following delimitation, four Assembly segments — Para, Onda, Kashipur and Hura — which gave a lead of over 170,000 votes to Acharya in 2004 are no longer part of the Bankura constituency.

But the CPM candidate thinks otherwise. “The new Assembly segments, Raipur, Ranibandh, Taldongra and Saltora, will give me a comfortable lead,” says Acharya, sounding confident in the Saltora party office before he sets out for the rally.

According to CPM estimates — based on the 2004 Lok Sabha and the 2006 Assembly elections — the four segments will put Acharya ahead of Mukherjee by 130,000 votes.

But the past five years have changed a lot of arithmetic, insists Mukherjee. “If we take the panchayat poll outcomes, the margin will come down to 30,000. Then you add the impact of my candidature.”

Amiya Patra, the CPM’s district committee secretary, is dismissive: “We win elections because of our organisational machinery. An individual can’t affect that.”

But even CPM insiders admit the nomination of a political heavyweight has made it an even battle.

Mukherjee senses this and the veteran of 14 polls is leaving no stone unturned to convert the interest among voters into votes, even if the dawn-to-midnight campaign means he skips his hour-long yoga sessions and survives on liquids and a bland diet that would be good for hospital patients.

“I would have preferred a seat in Calcutta or in South 24-Parganas, where I have worked all through my political career, but the response in the remote villages in Bankura has come as a surprise,” says Mukherjee after a traditional tribal welcome in Raipur, where girls garland him and sing songs in his praise.

Wife Chandobani, in Bankura to take care of her husband’s sudden toothache, smiles at the welcome.

After sealing a deal with the Jharkhand Jana Mukti Morcha, Mukherjee is expecting a major share of the 14 per cent vote of Bankura’s tribal population, for whom lack of development is the main issue.

“The failure of the sitting MP and the state government in ensuring basic amenities has made local issues very important in the elections and the discontent of the electorate will eat into the Left’s vote share,” says Mukherjee.

But Acharya is unruffled as there are several claimants — the Jharkhand Party (Naren), Jharkhand Party (Aditya) and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha — to the tribal vote bank.

“My opponent can criss-cross the district because we successfully laid metalled roads…. Three steel projects by Jai Balaji Group, Shyam Steel and Adhunik Steel and a new DVC power plant are coming up in Bankura. The district is poised for a big leap,” he says.

Although Acharya claims he has done his bit to solve the local problems — drinking water to rural electrification and primary education to irrigation — the numbers are not in his favour.

The rural poverty rate — or the percentage of people in rural areas below the poverty line — in Bankura is 59.62 per cent (source: West Bengal Human Development Report, 2004). Of the 4,612 villages identified as backward by the state, 569 are in Bankura.

Every time Mukherjee brings up the deprivation of the district in his roadshows, he touches a chord with the audience and wins applause. But translating the support into votes will be easier said than done and chances are, Mukherjee will end up as a valiant vanquished in the battle of Bankura.

Bankura votes on April 30