It is difficult to take your eyes off her. Even at approaching sixty Moon Moon Sen is too dazzling to be ignored. This apart she carries three bonus points: the popularity of her late actress mother Suchitra Sen the matinee idol of yesteryear, Ria and Raima Sen her two “attractive” daughters.
These are the words of Pradip Das an active CPI(M) cadre from Taldangra in Bankura one of the last citadels the left Front is struggling to save from the Trinamool Congress storm group. like Pradip there are many more Marxist comrades like Mohan, Pratap, Amalendu who have been swelling the Sens’ rallies, just to have a dekho of how the white skins shine in the hot sun.
Moon Moon Sen contesting on Trinamool Congress ticket against sitting Marxist MP Basudeb Acharya is giving the 72-year-old seasoned parliamentarian a run for his money. “It is difficult this time roundfor many factors,” Acharya says conceding the workers are demoralised because of the political violence unleashed by the ruling outfit.
So much so that “thousands of our workers have fled home and are not able to return, let alone doing political work” he maintains adding however “we have told our people that the Election Commission is biased and they will not protect the voters. So the people will have to take necessary action themselves. Our comrades are prepared to resist the violence.”
like Acharya Trinamool is also nervous. “At a time when all the districts are giving good results it is also our duty to strengthen the hands of our leader Mamata Banerjee and that can be possible only when Moon Moon didi wins from this place” says a Chatna block Trinamool leader.
Sen herself however looks cool. “I have come here to fulfil a wish of Mamata and I hope the people will not reject me. If I win it is good if I don’t I will return to Kolkata.” The reason of her indifference is also the tremendous heat the dry regions of Bankura generate during the summers.
“When it is so uncomfortable even when you are in an air-conditioned car then you can imagine what these poor tribal people go through every summer” she says. On what her plans are for the suffering masses the actress says “ask my party leaders.”
The third party that is keeping the other big players on tenterhooks is the BJP. Though you cannot say for sure that lotus have just started to bloom in these dry boondocks the saffron outfit is generating enough wave in its favour.
One reason however behind the wave is its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi who on Sunday held a mammoth rally at the Bankura Stadium. locals say BJP which got about 40,000 votes in 2009 has become the major source of headache for the Trinamool.
“People have started taking BJP seriously now and one hopes we win the elections even if the victory margin is 5,000 votes” says Manisha Chatterjee a local party leader adding “our candidate Subhas Sarkar is a famed gynaecologist with wide contacts. He will topple the apple cart of both the left and the Trinamool this time round.”
“The plus point for the BJP is it is untested and the Modi wave. That Modi has done a great deal for Gujarat and that Bankura needs a great deal to be done are, the two ends that meet quite conveniently. So the people are thinking in terms of giving the BJP a chance” says Biswadip a school teacher.
Bankura has been a constituency of failed promises. The district has a whole lot of problems the prime being the water shortage. Bringing water from Durgapur Barrage has remained a pipe dream.
“The work is going on but when it will end no one knows” says Rameshwar Jhunjhunwala adding “Acharya is a good, honest man but he has failed to deliver the goods” as a result of which a large part of the district along with the main town with 3.5 lakh population remain dry during the high summers. “There have been talks of throwing check dams at Gandheswari and Darakeshwar Rivers but nothing of that sort has happened.”
The poverty reigns supreme in the area with many a local tribal often surviving on `2-a-kg rice distributed by the Government and the field rats they kill from time to time. This apart from this they also make do with fried ants and forest roots.
“My income is merely `350 a month” grumbles Rani Bauri of Gokulnagar adding none does anything for them before being snubbed by another local who says “we are with the ruling party and are satisfied.” The fear in every body’s eyes is palpable.
Sushila Baskey of Chagulia Kanal who has to go all the way to Burdwan to work for some earning refuses to talk on polls.
Apart from jobs “The plateau region is famous for its tourist beauty with spots like Mukutmanipur, Amar Kanan, Jhilimili Falls apart from the great heritage sites of Bishnupur famous for its Baluchari Saree, brass, bronze and terracotta works” rues Chatterjee adding slight impetus on the part of the Government can work wonders for this region as they had done in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. “They economy of this area can be given a new fillip and Subhas Sarkar has promised to do that.”
Acharya who had won the last elections even at the face of Mamata wave by more than a lakh votes however is confident. “Unlike others I have toured personally and on foot more than 800 villages, house-to-house and I think the people will back me once again.”
Hit by his own failures and that of his party he is banking largely on scams perpetrated by Trinamool. Saradha scam is one of them. “About 40,000 people of my area are bidi workers who had saved money with the Saradha. Now they are fuming and this would reflect on the EVM,” he said.