Prayers from the confines of Alipore jail seemed to have been answered when Mamata Banerjee again chose Madan Mitra as her Kamarhati candidate.
But the Saradha/Narada-tainted former minister failed to have the last laugh, losing to the CPM's Manash Mukherjee by 4,198 votes.
Not that many in Trinamul are unhappy over the loss. In fact, party sources said, Mitra's defeat has come as a relief to the leadership, which seems keen to distance itself from the leader who has spent more than a year in custody for his alleged role in the Saradha scam.
"No one will admit it openly but many in the party feel that Mitra's defeat offers us a chance to make a clean break," said a Trinamul leader who refused to be named.
Mitra holds the unique distinction of being the only Saradha-tainted minister in Trinamul to go to jail and the only party leader under the Narada shadow to lose the polls. (A person resembling Mitra has been seen on Narada tapes accepting wads of cash, nonchalantly).
"I am grateful to Kamarhati voters. We would have been ashamed had a leader in custody for a scam been re-elected," Mukherjee said soon after being declared winner. "Just donating money to clubs can't ensure one's victory."
The Mitras of Bhowanipore probably knew that clubs alone wouldn't help the leader sail through. So, the members of the family would make it a point to visit Kamarhati every day ahead of the elections and appeal for votes.
The Trinamul camp was quite buoyant before the elections, though murmurs of Mitra's stay in jail could be heard at almost every crossroads in the constituency. Those who had voted for him wondered whether they would have to visit the jail to get an an MLA certificate.
After winning what was till then a red bastion in the 2011 polls by around 25,000 votes, Mitra was rewarded with the transport and sports portfolios.
The Priya Ranjan Das Munshi protege was having a smooth ride till he started getting sucked into one controversy after another, starting with the suicide of Piyali Mukherjee, a 28-year-old lawyer who was also a Trinamul leader from Burdwan.
The CBI chargesheet in the Saradha case says Mitra had fought the 2011 polls with funds from the deposit mobilising company.
"I don't have anything to say about this result," Mitra's son Subhadip said while leaving the counting centre with a handful of supporters.
COLOUR CODED, SWEETS TO STREETS
