Durgapur, April 6: A smile playing on his lips and his hands folded, Trinamul candidate Apurba Mukherjee greets a voter in his constituency, Durgapur (west). The voter greets him back with a question: "Where were you all these years?"
Mukherjee, the Durgapur municipality chairman who has been re-nominated from the seat, faced several questions on electricity, roads and water as he went from one locality to another appealing to residents to vote for him.
As he entered the Durgapur railway station area, homemaker Saraswati Bauri said: "I saw you the last time in 2011, when you had come to attend a felicitation programme. You have come after five years to seek votes. Will you disappear again?"
The day was April 1 and the irony was not lost on many voters in his constituency, who alleged they had been "fooled" over the past five years.
Mukherjee, one of the senior-most Trinamul leaders in the steel town, looked helpless as people kept hurling questions at him. His hands folded all through, he quickly got into his car and left.
The Opposition said the Trinamul candidate was getting paid back in his own coin.
"He is the mayor and MLA. But people never got him when they needed him. He comes to his civic office at 11am and leaves within a few hours. The voters have every right to ask him questions," said Biprendu Chakraborty, a CPM district committee member.
A seasoned politician, Mukherjee has been with Trinamul since its inception. He became an MLA for the first time in 2001, defeating the CPM's Debabrata Banerjee. He has played a key role in building the Trinamul organisation in Durgapur, besides leading the party's trade union activities in the factories that dot the Durgapur-Asansol belt.
Mukherjee lost to the CPM's Chakraborty in 2006, but defeated him in the 2011 Assembly polls.
The questions Mukherjee has been facing on campaign trail indicate the discontent among residents, local Trinamul leaders said, doubting the wisdom of re-nominating him.
Asked about the questions, Mukherjee said: "These are all false propaganda by the Left-Congress alliance. I have done my bit for the people and they will bless me again."
Mukherjee's campaign managers conceded that they were worried.
Mukherjee is up against Biswanath Podial, the consensus candidate of the Congress and the Left. Podial switched to the Congress from Trinamul after accusing Mukherjee of "misbehaviour and arrogance".
A Trinamul leader said two of the architects of Mukherjee's victory in 2011 - Podial and councillor Gouri Biswas - had joined the Congress. Biswas had accused Mukherjee of high-handedness.
"The battle is very tough. The party should not have made him the candidate," the leader said.
According to Trinamul sources, the leadership had advised Mukherjee to "mend his ways" and connect with the electorate before the polls, aware of the growing discontent.
