Baap ka beta aur sainik ka ghoda zyaada nahi to thoda thoda, this phrase is generally used for its English equivalent: “like father, like son.” But Jangipur Congress candidate Abhijeet Mukherjee, in Deuli, is evidently very different from his illustrious father President Pranab Mukherjee.
Abhijeet breaks the rules of heredity and resembles his heavyweight father only in terms of weight and temperament. “Both of them are physically light and seldom laugh. From a corporate background, Abhijeetda, has a no-nonsense approach to everything. He believes in systematic and diligent work. Whenever you put a point before him your statements must be measured and to the point,” says a district Congress leader (on request of anonymity) who has been working under both the father and the son from 2004.
Deuli in Murshidabad, West Bengal and Delhi are about 1,500 km apart but both house the presidential residences. The President has set up a10-room Jangipur Bhavan at Deuli where he is likely to return after his retirement.
Is being the son of the President an advantage or a pressure to himIJ It cuts both ways, Abhijeet says. “First you do not have to introduce yourself to your voters. The credibility factor works for you too. But then people constantly compare you with your father which is embarrassing.”
Senior Mukherjee entered the lok Sabha for the first time after winning the parliamentary elections from Jangipur in 2004. Before that he has been a Rajya Sabha member. The earlier reason apart, the constituency is also dear to the Mukherjees because of its proximity to Kirnahar, their ancestral village in the neighbouring Birbhum district.
Jangipur is part of the Murshidabad district which has three parliamentary constituencies — Behrampore, Murshidabad and Jangipur. A stronghold of PCC president and junior Railway Minister Adhir Chowdhury, all three seats were considered ‘safe’ for the party till recently. In fact, the Pranab won the seat in 2009 by a margin of more than 1.28 lakh votes.
But then the whopping margin of 2009 came down to a mere 2,500 votes in 2012 by-elections when Abhijeet Mukherjee fought in place of his father after he became the President of India. Curiously, the BJP’s vote share in the 2012 by-elections shot up from three per cent to about 11 per cent. Another cause of worry for Abhijeet this time round is the Trinamool Congress, which did not contest the bypolls then, showing respect to the President. The party has now fielded Haji Nurul, a minority candidate, from the constituency now. Murshidabad district has about 68 per cent minority voters.
However Adhir Chowdhury, who is also the district Congress chief, presiding over well-oiled party machinery, is confident of a comfortable win this time round. “Over one lakh Congress voters, who live outside Bengal due to their jobs, could not come to vote in 2012. But they are sure to come this time. This will change the complexion of the game,” says the Union Minister charged with navigating the junior Mukherjee to safety.
Adhir pins his hopes on a host of factors. According to him, “People have remembered the good work done by Pranab babu.” After Jangipur elected the senior Mukherjee, a passport office was set up at the district headquarters. It was followed by an Army cantonment and a branch of the Aligarh Muslim University. This apart, the Centre has also earmarked additional Rs 500 crore for an extended 500 MW project of the Farakka Thermal Plant.
A railway bridge has been thrown between Azimganj and Jiaganj, reminds Md Iliyas, a Congress worker, adding how numerous banks and offices have come up in the area in the past one decade and all the credit goes to the Mukherjees.
However, the local bidi workers are not that happy. “We voted en masse for Pranab Babu and expected that our lives would improve. But we still languish in poverty,” says Hamida Bewa a widow of a bidi worker at Omarpur.
“They talked about insurances and many other facilities but all the promises are left unflfilled. We do not even get our dues regularly,” says SK Omar of Raghunathganj. There are about 6.5 lakh bidi workers in the district. “After agriculture, bidi industry is the biggest employer,” says Omar adding that the much talked-about food processing units, promised during the left Government, have not come up yet.
The entrance of Haji Nurul has queered the pitch further for Mukherjee. “I have faith in the popularity of Mamata Banerjee. Her blessings will get me through,” the sitting MP from Basirhat who was reportedly banished to this place on account of poor performance says denying the fact that he was only eyeing minority votes. “Everyone will vote for me,” he insists.
With BJP’s vote share rising and Trinamool queering the pitch, CPI(M) candidate Muzaffar Hussein sits pretty content. “We have a defined vote percentage. We will win if the elections are free and fair,” he says adding the Marxists’ concentrate on house meetings rather than roadshows.