Santosh Pathak had won the 2005 civic elections from ward 45 in Burrabazar by promising to turn around the fortunes of the residents, mostly migrants from the Hindi heartland.

Five years later, as the Congressman seeks his second mandate, his opponents both within and outside the party say Pathak has made good part of his promise.

“The only ones whose fortunes have changed are Pathak’s aides,” said a Congress leader from Burrabazar who refused to be quoted.

As Metro travelled through the lanes and bylanes of the ward, rumours flew thick and fast that Pathak had amassed huge wealth during his five-year term as Congress councillor.

Pathak himself is not too bothered about the “false” charges. “I organise at least five blood donation camps in my ward every year. People say I earn Rs 5 lakh from each. Why don’t they organise 10 such camps and make that much more money? Then at least they will take some initiative for the people,” shot back Pathak, campaigning with his wife Vimla.

A large part of the ward is in Burrabazar’s trade hub, one of the country’s largest wholesale and retail zones, where crores of rupees change hands every day.

And if there is money, muscle cannot be far behind.

Pathak’s detractors claim that he has employed strong-arm tactics to “institutionalise” illegal construction in his area. A jibe in the ward is that if Pathak wins another term, he will be in the race to become one of the richest men of the city.

Leaders of all parties in Burrabazar Metro spoke to have one query: “Santosh Pathak owns cars and properties, and has musclemen on his payroll. All this happened after he became councillor in 2005. Can anyone amass so much money through legal means in just five years?”

Pathak’s supporters say the allegations of financial malpractice stemmed from envy. “His rise has been meteoric. There are many Congress leaders who were once senior to him but now have fallen behind. These people are now cooking up stories against Pathak,” said a supporter, busy putting up a giant cut-out of the leader on Rabindra Sarani.

The councillor, also president of the party’s Burrabazar district committee, said he had “worked hard” and served the party for more than 25 years to reach where he was now. “My political career started in the mid-Eighties when I joined student politics. In the Nineties, I used to be the election agent of Congress candidates.”

“Around 90 per cent of the 13,000-odd voters in his constituency are Hindi-speaking. Like politicians of the Hindi heartland, Pathak interacts with them keeping in mind the caste and religious equations,” said one of his aides.

Pathak’s principal challenger is Trinamul’s Nirmala Pandey. In 2005, he had defeated the mayoral council member in charge of parks and gardens, Hridyanand Gupta of Trinamul, by almost 2,500 votes.

Pathak and his followers are sure that this time, too, the scales will tilt in their favour. “We will do everything possible to make Santoshbhaiya win,” said a youth accompanying Pathak on his campaign trail.