KOLKATA: It was a weekend morning and a group of 20 odd middle-aged men, sitting in front of a tea-stall near Northern Park in Bhowanipore, was seen fiddling with their phones and sharing WhatsApp messages. The men belonging to the non-Bengali community, said to be BJP’s vote-bank in Bengal, were not sharing jokes or any other content. Instead, all messages were related to one subject: Whom to support, TMC’s Mamata or BJP’s Priyanka?
The question to support whom among the non-Bengali community living in Bhowanipore Assembly constituency, which supported the BJP en bloc in the recent Assembly elections, has sparked concerns in the saffron camp and brought smiles on the faces of TMC functionaries.
"It is a fact that the non-Bengali community has been divided into two factions. One wants to go with the allegiance that was extended to the BJP in the Assembly elections. The other prefers to support the TMC’s chief ministerial candidate Mamata Banerjee because her party has returned to power with a thumping majority. Besides, the BJP also failed to retain the legislative strength that it secured in the Assembly polls,’’ said Vikram Mehta, whose grandfather had come to settle here from Gujarat decades ago.
Mehta was not hesitant to disclose that he was suggesting other members of his community vote for Mamata by sharing WhatsApp messages.
Bhowanipore is all set to witness a high-voltage by-election of recent times in West Bengal’s electoral history on September 30. Mamata is the first chief minister of Bengal who will face a by-election to get elected as an MLA to retain her position in the state administration. Though other political parties fielded candidates, like the Assembly polls, but it is a battle between the TMC and its arch-rival BJP.
Those who do not speak Bengali form 40 per cent of the total electorate in Bhowanipore Assembly constituency. Though the BJP is expecting support from this set of voters, the ground reality doesn't resonate with their expectations.
"Why would we vote for BJP’s candidate? Many of us voted for the BJP because there was a perception that it almost came to power in Bengal. But the Assembly election’s result was far from it. Now a good chunk of non-Bengali voters decided to support Mamata and they are also convincing others by sending messages on WhatsApp,’’ said homemaker Rekha Mehta.
BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal is confident of bagging support from the non-Bengali community. "People of Bhwanipore, irrespective of what language they speak, will support me," said the young lawyer.
Though the BJP engaged its national leadership and Union ministers for poll-campaign in Bhowanipore, the saffron camp, sensing dent on its non-Bengali vote-bank, chalked out a strategy to ‘hijack’ Mamata’s popular "Didi image". In the poll-graffiti, Priyanka did not mention her surname and was portrayed as Priyanka Didi. "This is to woo the Bengali-speaking electorates. We adopted the strategy to give an impression that it is a Didi vs Didi battle," said a BJP leader.
The walls along a narrow lane in Bhowanipore’s Ekbalpore area, a Muslim dominated pocket, is completely covered with graffiti displaying chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s photos, her favourite slogan 'khela hobe' and a new campaign line 'Bhowanipore nijer meyeke chay' (Bhowanipore wants their own daughter). A cluster of 20-odd youths standing in front of a tea-stall was confident that there would be no re-run of Nandigram episode and victory for Mamata from her erstwhile south Kolkata constituency would be a cakewalk.
"The is no hurdle on the path of Didi’s victory. This pocket has been loyal to her since the 2011 Assembly elections," said Mohammad Samad of Ekbalpore, a stronghold of TMC.
The Bengal CM’s speech in her poll campaigns reflected her desperation to bag victory in the by-poll. "Every single vote is important to me. If you want to me see as the CM, don’t waste your vote,’’ Mamata continued saying in her campaigns.
Mamata on Sunday asked her party workers to distribute pamphlets door-to-door. "My political career started from Bhowanipur. Because of Covid protocols, I cannot reach you. I seek your blessings,’’ she urged to electorates in the pamphlets.
When the saffron camp labelled the desperation as a reflection of ‘Mamata under pressure’, the TMC rubbished the claim.
"The victory is confirmed. In the Assembly elections, our candidate Sovandeb Chattopadhyay won from here by a margin of 28,719 votes. In 2016 Assembly polls, Mamata didi won by 25,301 votes. Our target is securing a victory margin of more than 50,000 votes. If she gets one vote less than Chattopadhyay’s victory margin, BJP will get a chance to raise questions on the CM’s popularity,’’ said a senior TMC leader.
Bhowanipore fact-file
Total voters: 2,00,938
Male: 1,09,024
Female: 91,911
Transgender: 3
Non-Bengali voters: 40%
Muslim voters: 10%
Bengali voters: 50%