Nandini Mukherjee campaigns in Bhowanipore on Thursday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Calcutta, Sept. 22: She has hit the streets almost every day in the past two weeks, gone door to door in campaigns stretching for 14 hours a day and used PowerPoint presentations to reach out to the GenX.

Nandini Mukherjee, the CPM candidate for the Bhowanipore bypoll, has assiduously used all campaigning tools in her battle against Mamata Banerjee.

Yet, the director of Jadavpur University’s School of Mobile Computing and Communication does not talk about winning or losing the election. The 45-year-old “lightweight” candidate — several heavyweights refused to contest the seat, CPM sources said — against the chief minister doesn’t even claim that she will put up a tough fight.

Left ideology playing on her lips, Nandini is campaigning for at least 12 to 14 hours every day with the aim of meeting all the 2,12,759 voters in the constituency before the September 25 bypoll.

“Whether I win the election or not is immaterial. The Left ideology is more important,” Nandini said. She cut her teeth in politics in 1983 while studying at the erstwhile Bengal Engineering (BE) College in Shibpur, now known as Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu).

“The state is going through a political turmoil since the Assembly elections. Now it is extremely important for people to understand the Left ideology,” she said, taking time off from campaigning in Kalighat’s Patuapara, barely a few hundred metres from Mamata’s 30B Harish Chatterjee Street home.

Thanks to the CPM’s poll machinery, Nandini’s meetings and road shows have drawn large gatherings. Her colleagues and juniors have made PowerPoint presentations at her public meetings, informing the electorate about her ideals.

But she dodged questions on whether the turnouts would reflect on the ballots.

According to Nandini, she is in the fray because her party leadership wants her to contest. She admitted she was “fully aware” of her principal opponent’s sway in Bhowanipore, which falls under the Calcutta South Lok Sabha constituency Mamata represents.

Bhowanipore, a traditional anti-Left seat, had seen Trinamul’s Subrata Bakshi win by a margin of 49,936 votes against the CPM’s Narayan Jain in this year’s Assembly polls.

Bakshi, who stepped down as MLA to clear the decks for Mamata to contest the seat, is looking after the chief minister’s campaign in Bhowanipore. Mamata has not managed to squeeze much time out of her busy schedule to personally campaign in the constituency. She has led only two road shows so far. Trinamul supporters expect Mamata to win by a “record margin”.

Nandini put up a brave face while discussing Mamata’s might. “I have taken it as a challenge,” Nandini said.

Although the doctorate in computer science from the University of Manchester has not actively dabbled in politics, she has always been a Left supporter. Nandini, whose husband Biman Banerjee is the registrar of Besu, has been associated with the pro-Left Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association since 1992. She became a member of the JU executive council by winning the elections of the faculty council.

The bypoll is, however, a different experience, she said. She is contesting against the chief minister. Moreover, several senior CPM leaders, including former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and party state secretary Biman Bose, have taken part in her campaign meetings and road shows.

Nandini has never met Mamata but hopes that one day she will get a chance. “If I ever meet her, I will tell her to try and increase her tolerance level. It is shocking to see the way she refuses to accept anything that goes against her opinion,” the CPM candidate said. “But I have never attacked her personally,” she added.

Aware that criticism of a four-month-old government will not cut much ice with the voters, Nandini is trying to focus on larger issues such as price rise. But she appeared mildly critical of the new dispensation’s change chant. “The change that people were craving for has come. But has it changed for good?” she has said at several rallies.

Nandini also questioned the priorities of the government. “Funds allotted for bustee development is being diverted to other projects. This is where the Left differs from Trinamul. Our focus was on bustee development. But this government’s focus is on turning Calcutta into London,” she said while speaking on the “class bias” of the present regime.

The classical singer who also loves acting, however, appreciated one quality of Mamata — her “strength of mind”. “I may not like her ideology but I appreciate her for her strength of mind. One has to admit she has fought hard to build her political career.”