A stronghold of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM) and not even a seat where the Congress is contesting, why then did the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh slot his political campaign in West Bengal at Dum Dum? This was the question which raised the eyebrows of political pundits in the state last week.
Dum Dum is seeing a close fight between the CPM star campaigner Gautam Deb and TMC's Bratya Basu, a theatre personality and a prominent face of Bengal's intelligentsia-led 'Parivartan' campaign. Deb, a party Central committe member, is considered to be the next face and the future Chief Minister of the party in Bengal and the one who is leading counter attack against the 'vote for change' campaign by the Mamata Banerjee-led party. He has triggered the controversy over alleged use of black money by the TMC in poll campaign.
According to well-placed TMC sources, the reason to bring the PM was an indication of the fact that how much importance the party is giving to defeat the CPM heavyweight. "Didi had invited the Prime Minister to Dum Dum, as the party is giving special importance to this seat. Deb needs to be defeated," said Saugata Roy, Member of Parliament from Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency and the Minister of State for urban development.
Dum Dum, which comes under North 24 Paraganas district and about 15 kilometres away from Kolkata, comprises of Dum Dum muncipality, along with 17 wards of South Dum Dum muncipality after the delimitation, where TMC had a thumping majority during the recent muncipal elections.
It was considered to be a red fort once and was known to be the strong-hold of the late CPM leader and former state transport minister Subhas Chakraborty. In 2006 assembly poll, CPM's Rekha Goswami defeated TMC's Udayan Namboodiry by a convincing margin of 30,238 votes. But things have changed a lot since then, in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Roy got a slight majority over the CPM's Amitava Nandy by 769 votes in this assembly segment.
Meanwhile, locals consider the competition to be close to predict a clear winner. "There is 50-50 chance for both of them. Neither the CPM, nor the TMC seem to be having an edge," said 24-year-old Sudipto Bhowmik. Though the CPM accepts that it may not be a cakewalk for the party heavywight, they still believe that the popularity of the state Housing Minister will be reflected in the ballot box. "To make up 700 vote is no big deal. Dum Dum has never refused us. Moreover, you can see here how people are responding to Goutamda. All the TV channels are asking him for an interview, people like him," said Swapan Gupta, the party zonal committee secretary, Dum Dum.
Called the "Maradona" of the CPM by party workers due to his crowd-pulling capability, Deb is the star election campaigner, while Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee seem to be concentrating too much on his own Jadavpur constituency. But, Deb, sitting MLA from the Hasnabad assembly is facing the questions from the opposition for changing the seat.
"If he is too big a leader, why he has come to Dum Dum to contest, he could have contested from Basirhat which resembles to his earlier assembly seat. He might have thought this is a safer seat. But, now there is nothing called safe seat for the CPM. People from Dum Dum will teach him a lesson," said Mamata Chakrabarty, a tea-shop owner at Dum Dum who claims herself as TMC supporter and seem to proud of her namesake with TMC supremo.Defending all these allegations, Deb had said, "My house is here. Moreover, as this is close to Kolkata, it is easier for me to travel from here to other parts of the state and campaign.". On the other hand, Basu, the change agent for TMC in the constituency, had challenged Deb and said, "He(Goutam Deb) has said so many times that he has not heard my name. He will know me on May 13 when the result comes out."
