The Hindu : CPI (M) makes all-out bid to capture Kolkata

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 31, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

CPI (M) makes all-out bid to capture Kolkata

With the political and demorgraphic profile of the city changing, the Left feels it stands a good chance of wresting control, says Malabika Bhattacharya.

Whose Kolkata is it anyway — Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's or Mamata Banerjee's? Fiercely debated, the issue transcends the two individuals in question to symbolise the two dominant and competing socio-political forces in the city. How and who Kolkata votes for has been an enduring electoral topic in Bengal where Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front has been in power for 26 years. Yet, the question arises again because the Leftists have been largely unsuccessful in winning electoral contests in the city.

With familiar political configurations disintegrating, new ones emerging and the composition of the Kolkata voter changing, the question has returned to centre stage. For the first time in years, the ruling communists scent opportunities. This is because the political matrix has altered considerably, along with changes in the demographic profile, the government's attitude to management of the city and a revival of global interest in it.

Central to Kolkata's choice of people's representatives are the five parliamentary constituencies — Kolkata South from where Nationalist Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee, the sitting MP, is seeking her fourth term in Parliament; Kolkata Northwest, where a tough battle is underway involving the mayor Subara Mukherjee and the rebel Trinamool leader Sudip Bandopadhyay, the sitting MP; Kolkata Northeast, where the Trinamool's Ajit Panja, the sitting MP, is seeking a seventh term; Jadavpur where the Trinamool's Krishna Bose, the sitting MP, is fighting for a third term and Dum Dum where the Union Minister, Tapan Sikdar, of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seeking a third term.

Of the five, Jadavpur and Dum Dum, were regarded till the mid-eighties as "red citadels.It was only after they lost control of Jadavpur for the first time in 1986 and Dum Dum in 1998 that the communists woke up to the looming danger.

No matter how determined the CPI (M) is to crack Kolkata, it will not be easy given the ground realities. It is going to be difficult for a challenger to try and unseat Ms. Banerjee, perhaps the most durable anti-Left symbol in the State, from Kolkata South. Still, the CPI (M) is trying its best, fielding a heavyweight like Rabin Deb, the legislator from Ballygunj.

The centre of attraction, however, is Kolkata Northwest, where Mr. Mukherjee faces a triangular contest, pitted against the CPI (M)'s Sudhangshu Sil as well as the sitting MP, Sudip Bandopadhyay, fighting with Congress backing. The local Congress workers opposed to the party's decision to back Mr. Bandopadhyay are not likely to help him and this will benefit Mr. Mukherjee. But Mr. Mukherjee's foes in the Trinamool, who are legion and have not taken kindly to Ms. Banerjee's decision to replace the sitting MP, may work against the mayor. The resulting situation may help Mr. Sil.

Meanwhile, the 90-year-old Jyoti Basu is trying to get Dum Dum back. "All that I ask of you is to get me Dum Dum,'' Mr. Basu pleads in meeting after meeting. The seat was traditionally the CPI (M)'s until won by Mr. Sikdar of the BJP in 1998. Mr. Sikdar had profited from the internal feuding in the CPI (M) combine to win the seat. With Mr. Basu now playing arbiter, the factions have come together to help regain the seat.

In Jadavpur, the sitting Trinamul MP, Krishna Bose has an edge but the CPI (M)'s nominee, Sujan Chakraborty, who lost by only four votes from Baruipur in the South 24-Parganas in the 2001 Assembly polls, is expecetd to put up a tough fight.

That the CPI (M) is determined to penetrate Kolkata this time is clear from the sitting Trinamool MP from Kolkata Northeast Ajit Panja's observation that the contest will be close. Youth Services and Minority Affairs Minister Mohammad Salim has been pitted against Mr. Panja.

The CPI (M) wants to tighten its grip over the city it wants to showcase for investments in Bengal, to which it is the gateway. The party realises that Kolkata has undergone a demographic change over the past decade with a huge increase in Hindi-speaking voters who dominate trade and commerce in Bengal as well as the eastern region. "We believe the trading community will largely go with the Left Front which they consider stable and capable of maintaining an equilibrium,'' said a political observer.

The CPI (M) is also banking on the fact the city is witnessing crucial infrastructural development — new flyovers, satellite townships in Rajarhat and on the city's fringes, an IT park in Salt Lake, offices and commercial complexes. With investment flowing in on the back of a retail boom, glitzy shopping malls, multiplexes, departmental stores, theme restaurants, five-star hotels, clubs and giant healthcare centres are springing up, offering a qualitative change in lifestyle. The Leftists believe they can cash in on this.

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