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Daughter
prefers Didi’s ticket to Panja’s jibes
Santanu Banerjee
Kolkata,
April 26: Meet Mahua Mandal at the makeshift Razabazar party
office of the Trinamool Congress. Contesting the Vidyasagar Assembly
seat for the first time, 36-year-old Mandal has her hands full.
If the challenge
to reconcile with father Ajit Kumar Panja’s public criticism
of Mamata Banerjee—the leader Mandal swears by—was not
enough, she is taking on the formidable CPI(M) veteran and three-time
MLA Lakhmi De, who is back after a break in 1996. She is contesting
from one of the seven Assembly segments of Panja’s Parliamentary
constituency—Calcutta North East.
But sitting
among party workers in the ramshackle Trinamool office, Mandal appears
unperturbed. Loudspeakers blare out songs in praise of Mamatadi
as Mandal instructs her colleagues to keep their leaders’ life-size
photographs ready for the campaign trail later in the evening. In
between, she explains to this correspondent that if her father would
say all what he had to against the party after the polls were over,
he ‘‘would have been accused of nothing less than giving
political protection to his daughter’’.
A couple of
party workers carry in a huge cut-out of the Trinamool symbol. Mandal
pauses to appreciate the ‘‘artwork’’ before
accepting that the face-off between her father Panja and her leader
Banerjee has caused general bitterness. But, she hastens to add,
that hasn’t affected her position in the party.
‘‘My
conscience is clean. My primary task is to remain loyal to the party
which gave me the ticket,’’ says Mandal, adding: ‘‘The
conflicts made big news but it doesn’t affect me as long as
I sincerely try to win the seat for the party.’’
Senior Trinamool
Congress leaders seem to agree with her: ‘‘We don’t
associate her with her father’s actions. There’s no ground
to doubt her sincerity towards the party.’’
On his part,
Panja too is not unduly worried as long as he is not requested to
campaign for his daughter. As things stand, nobody has so far invited
him to campaign, he said.
It doesn’t
matter, though. Even if Panja doesn’t campaign for his daughter,
Mandal will definitely benefit from her father’s legacy. And
she accepts it: ‘‘After all, people here know my father
and the things he had done for the area.’’
But it’s
hardly been a cakewalk. As if to make things more complicated for
Mandal came the news of BJP candidate Rajgiri Singh’s nomination
papers being rejected during yesterday’s official scrutiny.
And the CPI(M) was prompt to see — and, in effect, point out
to the Trinamool — a ‘‘design’’.
‘‘After
all, that’s what the BJP could do for Panja’s daughter,’’
quipped Lakhmi De, CPI(M) MLA from the seat between 1982-1996. ‘‘It’s
just not convincing that a national party’s candidate would
make mistakes amounting to rejection of his nomination papers. Now,
we’re going to have a direct fight,’’ De observed,
sitting relaxed in a shop on Keshab Sen Street.
Mahua inherited
the seat from Congress’ Tapas Ray who won the 1996 polls defeating
the CPI(M). De, who got embroiled in the Rashid Khan blast case
in 1993, did not contest in 1996.
But Mandal
is preparing to fight it out. In terms of wall-writing and splashing
party banners, she has already scored a point or two over De. De,
however, looks unfazed: ‘‘I know each and every lane of
this area. I see no threat in her.’’
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