Kaushik Dasgupta in front of his IA Block home. The poster behind him carries the cycle symbol. (right) His letterbox carries the changed pen nib symbol. Pictures by Sudeshna Banerjee

The township does have a resident vying to represent us in Parliament. His name is Kaushik Dasgupta and he lives in IA Block.

But the whole-time worker of Samajwadi Party (SP) — he says he is the president of the party’s North 24-Parganas unit — has lost a key weapon well before the electoral battle: his party symbol.

The problem is apparent to a visitor. An election poster pasted on the ground floor of his two-storeyed house at IA 212 carries the cycle, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s symbol, but on a leaflet glued to his letterbox the cycle has been pasted over.

“The letter from the party arrived late,” says the 47-year-old, with a downcast look, relating how he missed out on the cycle ride.

Dasgupta had joined the party two years ago inspired by SP state chief Kiranmoy Nanda, a former minister in the Left front government, who stays in the same block. It is he who had asked him to contest. With Nanda away in Uttar Pradesh, the party’s backyard, Dasgupta filed his nomination mentioning himself to be an SP nominee. That was on April 21. As per rules, the letter from the party backing his nomination addressed to the returning officer was still awaited. The last date for filing nominations was April 24. When the letter finally reached Barasat from Uttar Pradesh in the last hour of business, the poll debutant was busy campaigning so far away that he could not make it to the district magistrate’s office by 3pm, the cut-off time. “I requested the DM to be lenient but he did not agree.” That has relegated him to an Independent candidate’s status.

That means the SP man has had to start all over again in familiarising voters with his new symbol — the nib of a pen. “I spent my own money to print 20,000 stickers carrying pictures the symbol to paste over the cycles in the banners that have already been printed.” Even the security deposit that a candidate has to deposit to contest an election has come from his own pocket. “I don’t mind that. I am getting good response from voters. They say it is the name that counts, the symbol will not matter.”

Nanda has promised to campaign for him for a couple of days. But Dasgupta is not sitting idle banking on that hope, and is going door to door himself. “I am a player (He used to play club cricket) and will not quit mid-way through a match.”

Realistically speaking, what would the best case scenario be, in his view? “I would be happy with second or third place.” And whatever be the result, he says this won’t be the last time that he is out on the hustings.

saltlake@abpmail.com