They say what Gandhis are to Amethi-Rae Bareli and Mamata Banerjee is to South Kolkata, Subhendu Adhikary is to Tamluk lok Sabha constituency.
The reason: Son of Contai MP Sisir Adhikary, Subhendhu, now a sitting MP from Tamluk, is regarded as the ‘liberator’ of East Midnapore from the iron hands of CPI(M) which allegedly perpetrated the gory massacre of Nandigram in March 2007 in which 14 people taking part in land movement were killed in police firing.
“There is no question of anyone other than Subhendu winning in this seat,” said Gobindo Manna a sweet vendor insisting the two neighbouring seats of Tamluk and Contai are perhaps the only ones that do not depend upon any Mamata Banerjee wave.
“In fact, we are proud that we contributed immensely in bringing about the Parivartan in Bengal because had there been no Nandigram movement there would have been no Parivartan and had there been no Adhikarys even 10 Mamata Banerjees could not have liberated this zone from the hands of the CPI(M),” said a Trinamool leader from Nandakumar, about 25 km from Nandigram indicating that all is not well between the Chief Minister and the Adhikarys.
The left Front which has fielded SK Ibrahim Ali with an apparent eye on the 35 per cent minority voters seems to be banking more on the infighting within the Trinamool ranks than its organisational network which is almost a history now with “thousands of our comrades having fled their villages in the face of brutal attacks by the ruling party men.”
The CPI(M) is also plagued by the ouster of local strongman and four-time party MP laxman Seth from the party. Seth who is held guilty by the Trinamool grassroots for the Nandigram firing is also credited by the same detractors for bringing all-round development of Haldia township including its port, and local industrial units which, however, are passing through a lean phase over the past a few years.
“Seth has done more for this region than any one has. But he is a political outcast now running several cases against him so we can only feel pity for him,” says a CPI(M) worker adding Seth who was expelled from the party for his differences with Buddhadeb Bhattcharjee still has a huge number of followers in the party.
“It is on account of him that the CPI(M) has withstood the violence of Adhikarys controlling three out of seven Assembly segments in Tamluk,” Ashis Sihi a former Marxist worker said.
Tamluk is the seat from where Aruna Asaf Ali had contested in 1971, said Biman Acharya a senior citizen adding how this region had been a front runner in the Independent movement.
In the last elections, the Trinamool defeated the left by 1.8 lakh votes. But that was after Nandigram. Since then a lot has changed and the locals have got a taste of Parivartan even as investment have fled threatened by hooliganism and lack of initiative, allege locals.
“Though the locals would still vote for the Trinamool the difference between the two parties is fast coming down. And if Seth’s men back the party then the victory margin would come down to below 50,000,” said Adhirath Panda a teacher.