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Wall-fighting
spices up electioneering in West Bengal
PRESS TRUST
OF INDIA
Kolkata,
April 30: Granted, the Election Commission has banned writing
poll slogans on public buildings in West Bengal. But that hasn’t
stopped the inspirational party cadres to try their brushes on rival
leaders. It’s always ‘‘permissible’’ to
add a speech bubble or two, and the end-result is often as hilarious
as politically incisive.
 Go
round the streets of the city of joy and you will find all kind
of colourful and innovative wall-works done by different parties
— the CPI(M) and its partners in the Front, the Trinamool Congress,
the Congress and the BJP.
Though many might not like such defacing of walls, it seems impossible
to jack up the tempo of campaigning without graffiti during election
time in the state.
One CPI-M sketch depicts Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee
as a power hungry woman, who is bent upon becoming the Chief minister
at the cost of enlightenment. Though the relation between Mamata
and the rebel party leader Ajit Panja may have soured now, some
of the paintings portray Mamata asking Ajit Panja (known for his
performance in the role of Ramakrishna) to make her the Chief Minister.
The Trinamool wall paintings depict ‘‘the reign of terror
unleashed by the goons of the CPI(M) In Keshpur and other adjoining
areas of Midnapore, asking if people wants this to continue’’.
‘‘Nandan (the state government cinema complex) and Chandan,
the millionaire businessman son of ex-chief minister Jyoti Basu
are the only two achievements of the 24-year rule of the Left Front
government in West Bengal,’’ claims a Trinamool graffiti.
To counter both the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress-Congress
alliance, BJP graffiti depict Vajpayee as Rama and CPI(M), Trinamool
and Congress as ‘‘evil forces’’ like Ravana.
Senior Trinamool leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay uses popular cartoon
characters such as Tintin, Blondie, Captain Haddock, Phantom, Mandrake
to convey his message to the electorate. Chattopadhyay says he is
using the cartoon characters because people are fed up with caricature
of politicians.
Some candidates even drew up EVMs on the walls and explained to
voters where to push the button.
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