Can a political abracadabra arrest the failing fortunes of Barasat, the district headquarters of North 24 Parganas now considered the rape belt of BengalIJ BJP candidate and magician PC Sorcar Junior, who has vowed to show a trick or two in the ballot box to paint the constituency in saffron, answers in affirmative.
“If the BJP wins from here, things will fall in place. Barasat will be a peaceful town as before,” he says, adding he can see his victory in the eyes of the people here.“He is a good straightforward man and is getting good response from the people. In fact, he is pulling more crowds than anyone else and his star status is helping him a lot in this effort,” says Swapan Mondal of Sasan, once a Marxist hotbed and where gun never stopped booming during the last one decade of the left rule.
It is another matter that the guns have now changed hands after parivartan. They continue to spit fire but from the hands of Trinamool goons who have also conveniently changed sides after the political change.After the much desired parivartan, once a cultural hotbed (as also a wellspring of extreme-leftist movement in the seventies), the region of late has turned into a rape capital of Bengal. The region has seen a number of such cases, the most nerve-wrecking being the one taking place last year when seven people led by a relative of an alleged Trinamool leader had gang-raped and murdered a poor college girl.
If the crowd that Sorcar is pulling translates into vote, then one can safely say that the ‘bespectacled moustache man’ the new epithet he has gathered from the city’s youngsters has already grabbed the seat much the way he grabs his audiences eyes in magic shows.No wonder why the psephologists have already started saying that Barasat is one of the “safest” constituencies for a resurgent BJP which is eyeing at least seven seats in Bengal.“I don’t know whether I will win or not. But I will definitely try to vanish bad politics from the region if I am elected,” said Sorcar who all these years known for his proximity to the Marxists.
“We are fed up with this Government which has only given us high-sounding nothing. When we voted it to power, we thought that we are ridding Bengal of the Red menace. But now we can feel like falling from frying pan to fire,” a woman at Kamduni where the blood-curdling rape took place says wondering as to “if the Maharashtra Government can ensure punishment to rape accused in seven months, why cannot our Government do the sameIJ”
The Trinamool Congress won the Barasat seat by about 1.20 lakh votes in 2009. The TMC then with an alliance with the Congress polled 5.20 lakh votes while the left Front got 4 lakh votes. The BJP got little more than 55,000 votes. Curiously, the Congress that fought separately in 2004 got about 61,000 votes.“We are in a very good position and will get a positive result as the people are getting fed up with the misrule of this Government,” said Sorcar. His views are supported by Papiya Jana of Chapadali, “What safety Mamata Banerjee has given to us women in BengalIJ Nothing. Whenever there is a rape incident, she says it is a stage-managed show by the Opposition. Why do we vote for herIJ”
However, sitting Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghoshdastidar says her main opposition is the left. “We had ousted them in 2009, 2011 and we will oust them this time also. BJP is nowhere in the scene. We respect Mr Sorcar for his art and not for his politics,” she said.On whether politics is harder than magic, Sorcar who resides permanently at Ballygunge in South Kolkata says, “magic is an art and politics emerges from social service. Both, if practised sincerely can help the people immensely. I do not know why some modern politicians only use politics to grab power and money.”
On how he survives the gruelling hours of campaigning, he says “with the help of some coconut water, a cool fish-and-rice lunch, little rest and encouragement from my wife and daughters.”