Dinhata, April 19: Cooch Behar is the Left's last frontier in north Bengal and the Front has to depend on the legacy of Kamal Guha, the Forward Bloc leader who was a constant thorn in the side of the CPM.
Guha died in 2007, but his son Udayan is the Left's face for the Dinhata municipality election.
The fight in Cooch Behar - in the municipalities of Cooch Behar, Dinhata, Mathabhanga and Tufangunj - is against the might of Trinamul's Rabindranath Ghosh, who recently said ruling party candidates will get the administration's support, and Udayan, who is trying hard to make his family name work.
Of the four outgoing municipalities, only Cooch Behar was in Trinamul control. Tufanganj and Mathabhanga were with the CPM. Dinhata was with the Bloc. In that sense, Cooch Behar was a rare district - where three local bodies were with the Left.
In the 2011 Assembly elections, too, Dinhata, 25km from Cooch Behar town, voted for Udayan at a time Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul brought an end to 34 years of Left rule.
But from 2012 onwards, the political colours of Cooch Behar started to change as thousands of Left supporters started switching to Trinamul in the district. Dinhata was no exception.
In the 2013 panchayat elections, Trinamul secured most of the panchayats, all three panchayat samitis and all eight seats of Cooch Behar zilla parishad.
A jittery Left has fielded MLA Udayan to rescue Dinhata. Political observers said the Left has little hope of retaining Tufanganj and Mathabhanga. "This is why they have fielded Udayan Guha, the local MLA, in Dinhata municipality," the observer said. "The Left can give a fight to Trinamul only in Dinhata and may be Cooch Behar. If they lose Dinhata, it would have serious political implications in the district and will be interpreted as the Left's virtual deletion from Cooch Behar district," the observer added.
In the 15 seats in Dinhata, the Left had 13, Trinamul 2. This time there are 16 seats and : 29,281 voters.
Udayan, on an exhaustive campaign, who walks miles every day and approaches each household, is confident of retaining the civic body. Since 1981 when Dinhata municipality was formed, the Bloc was in control.
"We are urging people to vote for us so that law and order can be maintained in Dinhata. Voters are aware of Trinamul's atrocities across the state and in Cooch Behar district. We are confident that they will again pass a clear mandate in our favour," Udayan said.
Trinamul is not ready to relent, though.
"All the rural areas which encircle Dinhata town are ours. This time, we want to win in the civic body," said Ashim Nandi, a Trinamul leader and candidate in the civic polls. "The change in Dinhata has started late but at the last rural polls, people have voted us. This time, they will bring the change in Dinhata municipality which has failed to provide the basic civic services. Right from drainage, to drinking water, to disposal of garbage, to roads and installation of street lights, the board... could not carry out development work in the wards," said Nandi, who is the Trinamul probable for the chairman's post.
"The first Trinamul MLA in north Bengal was elected from Dinhata back in 2006. It happened in those days when the Left had secured a clear majority. But in 2011, people voted for Udayan Guha as there was no Trinamul candidate here (Trinamul had offered the seat to NCP)," said Prathanath Sarkar, another Trinamul leader.
Ashok Mondal, the former MLA who had won in 2006, is also in the fray this time.
"I am a civic councillor for the past four terms and also contesting this time. Kamal Guha is definitely respected by Dinhata residents, irrespective of their political affiliation, but that can never translate into votes for the Left Front," Mondal said.
A section of residents echoed Trinamul's allegation of lack of performance by the outgoing board.
"The drainage system is faulty and the town faces waterlogging in the rainy season. No project has been taken up to provide adequate drinking water in all the wards. The work on lighting the streets is pending, so is the development of roads within the wards," Amitava Sarkar, a schoolteacher in Dinhata, said. "Even though, the civic body was with the Left during the Front rule in the state, we have never seen any special project or additional funds being granted to the civic body."
Rabindranath Ghosh, the Cooch Behar district Trinamul president, is confident of bagging Dinhata.
"The Left has pitted a new netaji in Dinhata to save the board. This time however, the Netaji-Pitaji (referring to Kamal Guha and Udayan) issue will not work. Since 2011, the state government has done a lot for Dinhata town and the sub-division as a whole. Among these include a kisan mandi, a fair price medicine shop, an ITI, three degree colleges and a blood bank," Ghosh said.
"Around 98 per cent of the villages have been covered under a rural electrification plan while funds under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund have been used for improvement of the villages," Ghosh said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MAIN UDDIN CHISTI
