March 18: The Congress today fielded Mamata Banerjee's bete noire Deepa Das Munshi against the chief minister in Bhowanipore, adding zing to the contest in the Trinamul chief's backyard.
Hours after the Congress brought out a list of candidates for the Assembly elections, Deepa reached the constituency and visited the CPM zonal office in Kalighat to discuss strategy with leaders of the Left party.
"Nobody should think I am an outsider. I was born at Shishu Mangal Hospital and grew up at 2C School Road in Bhowanipore. I am a daughter of Bhowanipore," said Deepa, adding it was her first visit to a CPM office for "political reasons".
Deepa was not the only Congress veteran initially opposed to an understanding with the Left to rub shoulders with the CPM today. In West Midnapore's Sabang, MLA Manas Bhuniya filed his nomination in the presence of local CPM leaders.
"This time, there is a Modi-Didi wave. Everything has turned into dust. The understanding between the Congress and the CPM will clean Bengal," Bhuniya said.
The Congress high command cleared Deepa's candidature after being convinced by state unit chief Adhir Chowdhury that she would be the "fittest" candidate to take on Mamata.
"Deepa Das Munshi had been given the option of contesting from a seat of her choice. But we had particularly proposed her name for the Bhowanipore seat. The Congress high command has approved her candidature from this seat. Other senior leaders will also contest this time," Chowdhury said.
Deepa established herself as a face to reckon with in north Bengal after winning the Goalpokhar Assembly seat in North Dinajpur in 2006. She went on to become a Congress MP from Raiganj in the same district in 2009. The seat was earlier held by her husband Priya Ranjan, who has been ailing for a long time.
Congress sources said the contest in Bhowanipore would be a win-win situation for Deepa, particularly because she was left with hardly any option but to enter the fray after the Congress forged an electoral understanding with the Left. The sources said she hardly stood a chance of getting a ticket for the Raiganj parliamentary seat in 2019. The CPM's Mohammad Salim defeated her there in 2014 and is likely to be re-nominated if the Left-Congress understanding stays on track till 2019.
A state Congress leader said that by agreeing to contest from Bhowanipore, Deepa had opened up the possibility of being considered as a candidate for the Calcutta South parliamentary seat in 2019. He added that Deepa could also harbour hopes of getting a Rajya Sabha berth from Bengal next year, when some upper House seats will fall vacant.
Deepa's candidature, however, does not seem to have gone down well with Om Prakash Mishra, who had been announced as the Bhowanipore candidate by Chowdhury earlier.
In a Facebook post, Mishra wrote: "I had taken the initiative to lay the basis for Congress-Left Front unity and seat adjustment... and it is heartening that the ' jot' has materialised. It is also gratifying that some of our leaders who opposed the concept and had reservations have also agreed to contest the election with the support of the Left Front."
Many in the Congress feel that by eliciting Sonia Gandhi's approval to Deepa's candidature, Chowdhury had pulled off a masterstroke. The state unit chief has thus managed to get veterans to contest elections, a rarity in Congress politics in Bengal.
Abdul Mannan, who was initially reluctant, has been fielded from Hooghly's Champdani. Former state Congress chief Manas Bhuniya will fight from Sabang. The names of former MLAs Somen Mitra, Shankar Singh and Arunava Ghosh are doing the rounds as prospective candidates from the Chowringhee, Ranaghat West and Bidhannagar constituencies.
According to a state Congress leader, getting seniors to contest was no mean feat in a faction-ridden unit. Chowdhury not only steered the Congress's electoral deal with the Left but also persuaded senior leaders to contest.
