An uneasy lull descends at Muhammadpur Bazaar a tiny hamlet in Nandigram as the sun dips below the western rim. There was a skirmish between TMC and BJP workers a little while ago as the saffron supporters shouted Jai Shri Ram at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s convoy and the Trinamool cadres charged back menacingly. The central forces had a trying to keep the two sides away. Even as the rival sides retreat for the time being they vow reprisal.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is pitted against her former Man Friday-turned BJP nominee Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram --- that goes to polls on April 1 --- with a young and active CPI(M) candidate Minakshi Mukherjee giving valiant chase to her high-profile opponents.
A comment by Home Minister Amit Shah hours ago that the party that wins Nandigram will form the Government seems to have charged up an already ignited atmosphere.
With the campaign for the second phase polling coming to an end on Tuesday motley crowds collect hesitantly at the tea shops discussing hot topics. “Who knows what is there in store for us in the coming days,” says Khagen Jana a local who like many Nandigram residents want the politics and politicians out of the place.
With news of attacks and counterattacks filtering in from neighbouring villages gossipers who had collected at Ibrahim’s tea stall gradually fade away.
“We want to live peacefully, we want jobs, we are not concerned as to who is coming here from Delhi or Kolkata… Just leave us alone. Enough of using Nandigram as a ladder to realize political dreams… we do not want violence.,” says Abbas a local farmer who walked back home for more than 300 km from Bhubaneshwar during the lockdown.
“Why do these leaders use so harsh words for each other? Why do they have to polarize the atmosphere like this? What Lord Rama or Allah has to do with the elections, an Arpan Maiti unemployed postgraduate --- who unsuccessfully attempted two TET (Teachers’ Eligibility Test)exams --- from Reyapara wonders. But like many others he two feels like an ant in the artificial show of titans.
Asfaquddin an old man from Sonachura admits Nandigram of breaking along communal lines “perhaps for the first time after Independence. “Hindus and Muslims were together during the Nandigram movement … but today there is a unexplained divide … Now we hear that all that land movement during 2007 was fake and a part of some big master plan … I think the earlier regime was better. But still we have no other way but to support …” he stops short of naming Mamata Banerjee.
True, Nandigram has not seen a tensed and polarized election like this before. Not even during the Left rule. With Tuesday being the last day for campaigning for the second phase of polling the boondocks of Nandigram saw at least half a dozen road shows by the Chief Minister on one side and Home Minister on the other.True as well that Lord Rama is a comparatively new deity in this part of Bengal that largely worshipped Durga, Kali, Saraswati, Laxmi, Siva and Narayan.
On what lay ahead of the contestants he boldly says, “the candidate who will be able to catch most of the Left votes …effectively Nandigram has about 35 percent Left voters most of who would not like their votes to go waste … you know what I am saying. In that case if they vote in lot for Minakshi she may win but they won’t… In that case even the side that manages to get half of the Left votes will win.”
Like him another local farmer says how the CPI(M) workers “are so angry with the present government that they will vote only for the party will bring a change … they are working for the CPI(M) but this time round they may vote for some other party … you can understand what I am saying... The would not let us vote for years … they would fine us lakhs of rupees if we went to CPI(M) rallies… I sold my land to pay that fine .,.. they would make us do sit-ups in public for doing CPI(M)… a time has come to pay back.”
But with lot many people choosing not to say anything. Nandigram is any body’s game and anybody’s guess.
