The Hindu : National / Elections 2004 : Will Mamata get a run for her money?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 06, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

Will Mamata get a run for her money?

Marcus Dam

Kolkata

There cannot perhaps be a more intriguing battle than the one set to unfold in the Kolkata South Lok Sabha constituency. For, it is here that the well-oiled election machinery of the CPI (M) is taking on the Nationalist Trinamool Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee — arguably the leader with the largest mass following among West Bengal's Opposition leaders.

Ms. Banerjee has denied success to her Left Front opponents since she first contested from here in 1991 but her CPI (M) rival, Rabin Deb, who last month resigned as the Left Front's Chief Whip in the State Assembly, is no newcomer to electoral politics either. He has won the Ballygunge Assembly seat — one of the seven that comprise the Kolkata South Lok Sabha constituency — three successive terms. By choosing him as its nominee, the CPI (M) seems bent on giving Ms. Banerjee a run for her money even though all the Assembly segments with the exception of the one he represents remain in the clutches of the Opposition.

The constituency with its cosmopolitan, largely urban middle-class, electorate might be a sticky wicket for the Left Front but even the otherwise irrepressible Ms. Banerjee has been betraying a hint of diffidence in the run-up to the elections. On occasions she has been publicly apologetic "for certain mistakes I may have committed," "begging" for both votes and "forgiveness" at election meetings. How well her admission of having "committed a blunder by joining hands with the Congress in the 2001 Assembly polls" goes down with the voter will, however, only be known once the results are out.

At least one member of the crowd at a street corner meeting in Ballygunge last weekend, Rashid Azizi, is in no mood to oblige. "Her impetuousness that was in evidence when she resigned as the Railway Minister and her frequent threats to withdraw support to the National Democratic Alliance are politically inexcusable," he says. "Yet she is the only leader who can stand up to the might of the Left Front in the State," argues another onlooker.

Though she won the 1999 Lok Sabha polls with a thumping margin of 2,14,008 votes, the CPI (M) can take solace from the results of the last Assembly elections which, when compared with those of the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, indicate an increase in the percentage of Left Front votes in all but two of the Assembly segments — Chowringhee and Rashbehari. Mr. Deb and his workers hope not just to cash in on this trend but also expect to reap dividends "from a split in the anti-Left votes between the Trinamool and the Congress." The Congress might have come a poor third in 1999 but continues to enjoy a support base in the more affluent Chowringhee, Alipore and Rashbehari areas — once considered the party's strongholds.

Not that the Congress nominee is anywhere close to being a strong contender this time. The choice of former national swimming champion, Nafisa Ali, suprised many even within the party. Choosing Kolkata South for her debut in electoral politics is considered audacious, particularly because she left the city to settle in Delhi more than two decades ago.

Ms. Ali's presence in the fray notwithstanding, the contest is expected to be between Ms. Banerjee — didi (elder sister) to her supporters — and Mr. Deb who appears to have everything to gain and little to lose by throwing the gauntlet to an indisputably heavyweight opponent.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National