KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress, BJP and Left Front tried to make the most of the first Sunday after candidates’ names were announced for the September 30 Bhowanipore bypoll. With only two more weekends left for campaigning, leaders of all three major parties tried to reach out to local residents on Sunday.
Kolkata’s former mayor and state transport minister Firhad Hakim started the day by chanting Chandi mantra and kicking off a football later during the campaign trail. CM Mamata Banerjee’s brother Kartik took out a rally in her own KMC ward at Bhowanipore.
Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh was seen attending ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ and walling at the constituency. CPM candidate Srijib Biswas was seen meeting people in the ward.
As the day wore on, war of words turned intense.
Responding to Ghosh’s jibe that Trinamool has fielded a battery of star campaigners for CM Banerjee, who is the party candidate, Hakim said, “I am merely a worker at the constituency. Dilip Ghosh is the president of the party’s Bengal unit and he has come to campaign for the candidate.”
Ghosh, while attending a meeting with the locals over a cup of tea, said the campaigning by CM’s cabinet colleagues was a “sign of desperation”.
Banerjee’s brother Kartik, who took out a rally at Bhowanipore, said it is customary to campaign for a candidate. “There is no need to campaign for Mamata Banerjee. Yet, we must do it as it is customary to reach out to people before the polls. The development that she has done here does not need any certification from anyone,” Banerjee said.
If this was the first point of discord, the other was Hakim’s “baccha meye (young girl)” dig at BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal. Hakim had said, “Priyanka Tibrewal is a young girl. She had been defeated earlier in Entally. With no senior BJP functionary ready to contest against Mamata Banerjee in Bhowanipore, they have pushed this young girl into the battlefield. My sympathy for her as she will suffer a crushing defeat. But cannot help as Mamata Banerjee is in the hearts of Bhowanipore people.”
Tibrewal told reporters while campaigning, “A young girl doesn’t forever remain a young girl, a ‘bachha’ (child). She grows up to face challenges.” “Obviously, my rival Mamata Banerjee and her party campaigner Firhad Hakim are much older than me. But I am here to fight the battle, to save democracy, to save people from terror of Trinamool,” she added. Priyanka started her day with a campaign at Victoria Memorial and met morning walkers over glasses of sugarcane juice. Ghosh later joined her in painting poll graffiti.
CPM candidate Srijib Biswas went to the neighbourhood. “What have the people here achieved by electing the CM as their MLA? On the other hand, people are now suffocating under price-rise,” he said.
