Cong-Trinamool feud, strong BJP nominee may work for CPI(M)

Despite allegations of non-performance against CPI-M MP and party candidate Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, star athlete of yesteryears, disunity among workers of Congress-Trinamool alliance and presence of a strong BJP nominee may see her through again from Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat which goes to polls on May 7.      

Krishnanagar in Nadia district is a constituency where contestants of the two major parties are stars. While Sikdar had won two Gold medals and a Silver in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, Trinamool Congress' Tapas Paul is a Bengali cinestar.      

Sikdar is banking on her party's well oiled machinery and disunity among the grassroot level workers of Congress and Trinamool Congress which formed an alliance with an ultimate goal to remove the Left Front from power in the state.      

"The allegations of non-performance are made by media. Left Front government has been working for the rural people and will work for them," Sikdar, a Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardee, said.      

Her another advantage is BJP's popularity in the constituency where party state president and former minister of state for chemicals and fertiliser, Satyabrata Mookherjee is contesting.Unlike most other places in the state where BJP is virtually a non-entity, Mookherjee, popularly called "Jolu Babu", has a solid party base and had won the seat in 1999. If he managed to pull a sizable chunk of anti-CPIM votes, it would hurt the prospect of Trinamool's Tapas Paul.      

Pal, a two-time MLA from Alipur in Kolkata and known for development works there, is using the allegation of non-performance against Sikdar.       

"(Trinamool Congress chief) Mamata Banerjee has sent me here for development. I am not new to politics. Please give me a chance to work for all of you," Paul said at a poll rally near Krishnagar town.      

Hundreds of villagers had seen him in hit movies like 'Dadar Kirti', 'Bhalobasa Bhalobasa' and 'Gurudakshina' and now they are gathering in large numbers to see their hero in real life. "If this craze is translated into votes, then Paul has a good chance of winning," a Trinamool worker said.         

State Congress president and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had instructed Congress leaders to work in support of Paul, the alliance candidate, but PCC general secretary Sankar Singh, who supposed to campaign for him, is not doing so. In fact, Singh is campaigning for Deepa Dasmunshi in distant Raiganj LS seat in North Bengal.

If the internal feud of the alliance works for the CPI-M, it too has its share of worry: loss of its Muslim vote bank. Political analysts believe that Muslim voters, who had traditionally voted for Left Front candidates, may favour the Trinamool after rows over land acquisition in Nandigram where Muslims were the major victims.      

"This tendency was reflected in the results of panchayat elections last year. Voters in Muslim dominated Chapra block, a Left stronghold, has now turned away from us. Out of 13 gram panchayats in our grip, we retained only three," a local party leader confided.      

Sikdar, however, said, "Muslims started deserting the party after being misled by the opposition's false propaganda."      

The sliding winning margin is also a cause for concern for the marxists. The party has been winning the seat since 1977 but its vote share is going down every year. It had even been defeated to BJP's Mookherjee in 1999 when the Trinamool Congress was in the NDA. Sikdar later defeated Mookherjee by 20,387 votes in 2004.      

Mookherjee, an eminent lawyer and known for his clean image, has also made development poll issue. "We want all-round development and would provide it to the people of Krishnanagar constituency after winning polls," he said.      

Besides these major three, Krishnanagar also has six more contestants including those from BSP and SP.