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Mamata
moves Midnapore with ‘do or die’ cry
Sabyasachi
Bandopadhyay
Midnapore,
May 9:
Mamata Banerjee has turned out to be a one-woman army that the ruling
Marxists never thought they would have to worry about after being
in power for 24 years. Her tireless campaigning across the state,
covering thousands of miles in just a few days, addressing half-a-dozen
rallies in as many hours and frugal diet has left even her detractors
wondering where she finds the energy to do so much.
Take her
itinerary for the last two days. Late in the evening of May 6, she
left Kolkata for Bankura — a full 200 km away from the state
capital — crisscrossed Bankura and the adjoining Purulia district
attending about 10 public rallies.
The next evening, she was back in Kolkata, addressing another six
rallies, including one in Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharaya’s
constituency, Jadavpur. Hours later, she was off to Midnapore —
150 km away — to do some more campaigning and returned to Kolkata
at 2 am.
Yesterday, she was ready at 10 am and addressed a rally at LIC chowk
an hour later, and then was off to Sutahata in Haldia, on to Midnapore
and back to Kolkata.
So, as far as Assembly elections in West Bengal are concerned, this
is turning out to be a battle between the Marxists and Mamata. Mamata
is the Trinamool Congress, period.
‘‘I
will be back in Midnapore again tonight and during the polls I will
be stationed here,’’ Mamata told the crowd yesterday.
‘‘The rooms I was staying at the lodge had been booked
till the 13th,’’ she adds by way of assurance. And exhorting
the people to vote for her party, she says: ‘‘Midnapore
saw a fierce resistance against the British Raj. Now the second
war of independence, against the rule of the Marxists, has started
here.’’ The crowd, about 7,000 people who assembled at
the small chowk braving the scorching sun and debilitating humidity,
burst into spontaneous applause.
Everywhere in
Midnapore, Mamata’s presence has boosted the sagging morale
of party workers who were pilloried by the sheer terror tactics
of the ruling Marxists. The district, with 37 Assembly constituencies,
has witnessed violent clashes between the Trinamool and CPI(M),
claiming more than 100 lives in the past two years.
And after the
Trinamool won the Panskura parliamentary by-election early last
year, the CPI(M) saw red and went all out to stage a comeback. The
clashes that followed saw many Trinamool supporters flee their homes.
‘‘It’s
a do or die battle for us,’’ Mamata roared the rally.
‘‘It’s now or never.’’ It’s her popular
refrain. And it works. As Sisir Paul, a young businessman told The
Indian Express: ‘‘Her presence here has enthused her supporters.
If she stations herself here it will be difficult for the CPI(M)
to get an easy victory.’’
But going by
the present situation at Keshpur, Garbeta, Pingla and Sobong, it
looks like the CPI(M) just might manage an easy victory. For example,
in Keshpur, except for a few small party flags not a single poster
or graffiti of the Trinamool Congress candidate Rajani Dolui is
seen.
‘‘The
Trinamool flags have been put up by the CPI(M) to show that it does
not become totally one-sided,’’ a villager at Mugbasa
in Keshpur told this reporter on condition of anonymity.
‘‘The
CPI(M) has made it a prestige issue to win from at least Keshpur
and Garbeta. And elections there will be very peaceful. In fact,
the voters will be given the ink to put on their finger tomorrow
itself asked to sit at home. Just a few — naturally from the
CPI(M) — will be allowed to go to vote. And the Trinamool will
not be allowed to put up polling agents at the booths,’’
he asserted.
Mamata made the same allegation at the rally. ‘‘The present
Superintendent of Police has arrested 51 supporters of our candidate
Rajani Dolui at Keshpur, who were to work as polling agents,’’
she said. ‘‘He has done it under instruction from the
Marxists so that we cannot deploy polling agents,’’ she
charged.
On Monday, Dolui had written to the Election Commission, alleging
terror tactics by the CPI(M) cadre and withdrawn from the race.
But today, under pressure from Mamata, he has withdrawn the letter.
‘‘I have told Dolui to fight,’’ Mamata announced
at the rally. ‘‘Everybody will fight. I will lead them,’’
she said.
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