Congress flags in hand, Bhowmik and his wife campaign in Gopalpur. Picture by Sudeshna Dutta

Tamluk, June 18: Sukumar Bhowmik holds a Congress flag but among his campaigners, he can count on Trinamul and the CPM.

A section of the Opposition party supporters in a cluster of East Midnapore villages has been campaigning for Bhowmik.

Reason?

Bhowmik had stuck to his promise and had pursued leaders and officials at Writers’ for years to have his local Gopalpur gram panchayat named after freedom fighter Satish Chandra Samanta.

The “charisma” that Bhowmik exudes has won him the panchayat seat for about two decades now. Rival candidates admit it is “difficult” to defeat him.

While a CPM state secretariat member in Calcutta found “nothing wrong” in party cadres campaigning for a Congress candidate so revered in the village, state Trinamul president Subrata Bakshi said he would “seek a report” from the East Midnapore leadership.

Bhowmik, who owns a stationery shop, said villagers put up the demand to rename the panchayat when he was elected its chief for the first time in 1993.

“I promised the villagers that the Gopalpur gram panchayat would be renamed Satish Samanta panchayat,” Bhowmik said.

The Congress leader said he approached the then local party MLA, Sukumar Das, and after repeated requests, Bhowmik’s demand was echoed by Congress MLAs in the Assembly.

After two years of several visits to Writers’ and multiple pleas to then ruling party leaders, the “dream” came true.

“In 1995, the Left Front government agreed to the proposal. I went to Writers’ umpteen times and met senior officials and leaders to pursue my dream. Finally, the order to rename the panchayat arrived at the district headquarters in early 1995,” Bhowmik said.

He said the villagers, irrespective of their political colours, “love me for this” and so have been campaigning for years in various elections.

Satish Chandra Samanta was part of the parallel government — Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar — that was set up by rebels in 1942 in then undivided Midnapore. Samanta (1900-1983) also took active part in the Quit India Movement the same year. He was associated with the parallel government until his arrest in June, 1943. After Independence, Samanta became a Congress MP from 1952 to 1977.

Workers and supporters of Trinamul and the CPM said their sentiments prompted them to back the Congress’s Bhowmik.

Tapan Jana, the Trinamul candidate against Bhowmik in the 2008 rural polls, said even though he was a candidate from a rival party, “we have to admit that there is a strong sentiment working in his favour because he made Satish Samanta immortal. Although I am an active Trinamul worker, I am campaigning at times for Sukumarda.”

Mohan Jana, the Trinamul candidate against Bhowmik this time, said the party was “helpless”.

“We are helpless. Workers from the CPM and Trinamul are campaigning for Sukumarda.This has been the trend for years,” Mohan Jana said.

CPM worker Subhasish Maity, a party candidate in 2003, is also campaigning for Bhowmik.

“The charisma of Sukumarda is great. It is difficult to defeat him. Sukumarda has given Satish Samanta his due. So, I am willingly campaigning for him,” he said.