Untimely spells of squalls over the past a few days seem to have given the Trinamool Congress’ candidates a respite from early summer heat which is easily visible from the face South Kolkata party nominee Mala Roy.
Taking advantage of the “extended Spring,” Roy the Chairman (equivalent to Speaker of a State Assembly) of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and a “homemaker to the hilt” has drawn forward the fervor of Holi by a few days even as she plays with colour while in election trail.
“Everyone has a child hidden inside. I too am no different. So when I have found this opportunity to play with Aabir” or Gulaal (dry colours), “particularly with the children of the neighbourhood,” she says liberally smearing faces with green Aabir.
And why does she use green only? “There is no hard and fast rule about colours. Spring is the season of colours. Any colour can be used. Green however is more favourite because it carries a meaning. It is more akin to nature,” she sounds philosophical adding her party has no problem with colours as “we use blue, pink, yellow and many other hues.”
Roy and her husband a former TMC MLA and a scholar have been in and out of the party on more than one occasions. The couple had left the Congress to join Mamata Banerjee’s battle against the Left Front before coming back to the parent party. Subsequently she joined the TMC again in 2015 to become a councilor and then the Chairman of KMC. Ever since, she has been loyal to the party.
“I am a loyal soldier of Mamata Banerjee. She has asked me to go, contest and win the polls from a constituency one represented by herself. I will try my level best to do that” she says in the midst of taking a mid-day leave of a couple of hours when she goes back home to have a light dinner with rice, fish, curry, neem-brinjal fry and some chutney. “I take plenty of water during my campaigns,” she says aware that her constituency was once represented by the likes of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
She contesting against CPI(M) candidate Dr Nandini Mukherjee a professor of computer science from neighbouring Jadavpur University.
“Yes South Kolkata is a highly conscious political constituency,” she says adding however the people here “are traditionally Congress-Trinamool Congress and lately Mamata Banerjee-oriented. So I am confident that I will win.”
Banerjee had once won this seat by a huge margin of 2.35 lakh votes she reminds not forgetting however that BJP candidate Tathagata Roy had in 2014 elections come second taking a lead from a couple of Assembly segments.
On the possible Left-Congress alliance she says, “I don’t consume rejected stuffs,” and on BJP one of her party men says “western disturbances do come occasionally only to fade away with time,” reminding the “people of Bengal are largely not communally oriented. You can firm up some support by confusing nationalist and communal ideas but permanently the fight will remain between Left ideology and the one preached by Mamata Banerjee.”