Irrespective of which party walks away with the Birbhum Lok Sabha constituency, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is clearly making gains in this district on the Jharkhand border that was once part of the Left citadel till 2009.
Disillusioned with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) as a whole – but not necessarily with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee – people are even suggesting that they do not mind their vote being wasted. “This argument of wasting our vote by supporting the BJP has been played out for too long. It is my vote to waste,’’ says Mrityunjay Bhattacharya, a shopkeeper in Sriniketan area of Bolpur – the other parliamentary seat in the district.
He is not alone. There are many across the district with a similar opinion. And, if the visible signs of campaigning – posters and banners – are anything to go by, the contest seems to be primarily between the TMC and the BJP as Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress campaign material is hard to come by. While the Congress, according to locals, is not in the reckoning, the CPI(M) is hemmed in by the turf war with the TMC, which — by virtue of being in power — has the upper hand now.
Star powerAdd to this the fact that both the TMC and the BJP have got star power battling it out for the Birbhum constituency: Actress and sitting Member of Parliament Satabdi Roy is fighting on the ‘ jora ghas phool ’ (twin flowers in grass) symbol while lesser known actor Joy Banerjee is hoping to see the lotus bloom in an area that the BJP has never had a prayer.
While Ms. Roy is widely acknowledged to have done work for her constituency – so much so that the TMC is citing “unnayana’’(development) in Birbhum to voters in Bolpur that remained with the CPI(M) in the ground-shifting 2009 elections – she has met with anger in some areas with a couple of villages even deciding to boycott her.
That she was able to get more money released for the constituency than what was its due is being cited as a testimony to her commitment as a counter to the CPI(M)’s charge that she did not keep her 2009 election promise of making Birbhum home. She got Rs. 20.14 crore released against the Rs. 19 crore each of the State’s 42 constituencies were entitled to between 2009 and 2013. Of this she spent 80.43 per cent as per details of cumulative expenditure for 2009-2013 available on the website of the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.
This is being contrasted with CPI(M)’s Bolpur MP Ramachandra Dome’s performance. He could get only Rs. 15.14 crore released of which 75.75 per cent was utilised. Faced with this, CPI(M) workers insist the lower amount released to Dr. Dome was part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government’s way of sidelining the Left after partnering with the TMC in the earlier years of the current central dispensation.
Still, Dr. Dome – a medical practitioner — has a favourable reputation locally and even TMC supporters concede that it would be difficult to dislodge him given his margin of victory last time. If the TMC and the BJP have taken recourse to star power in Birbhum constituency, the CPI(M) has decided to test out the healing powers of another doctor fielding Kamre Elahi who campaigns with his stethoscope offering treatment on his campaign trail.
