While Mamata Banerjee has advantage in her home turf, the BJP wants to repeat its Nandigram feat.
It is a war in Bhabanipur with both sides lining up their armies. The Mamata Banerjee side does have the home advantage but is not complacent. The other side, BJP, has the lofty aim of repeating a Nandigram here and has lined up a battery of leaders to oversee matters even before declaring a candidate. There is a third side too, the Left, which is left rudderless with its partner just five months ago, Congress, deserting the fight.
All three sides have declared their lieutenants, and the game is on for September 30. Many may see chief minister Mamata Banerjee as a runaway winner here but listen to her and one would find a person who is once bitten, twice shy. “Didi will win and you will sit at home, don’t do this. Conspiracy will be there, so we have to reach out to every place. We have to concentrate on high polling,” the CM said in Bhabanipur on Wednesday.
THE TMC ARMY
The chief ministers best commanders are already in the field in Bhabanipur. The responsibility of the eight wards of Bhabanipur have been divided between Ministers Subrata Mukherjee, Partha Chatterjee and Firhad Hakim, MLA
Debasish Kumar and the CM’s brother Kartik Banerjee. Subrata Bakshi and Kalyan Banerjee will oversee things, MLA Madan Mitra has also been roped in and Abhishek Banerjee too will be overseeing the entire election activity.
THE BJP ARMY
The BJP also wants to make it a tough fight. Three MPs of the party have been put on the job in Bhabanipur. MP Arjun Singh has been given the Observer charge of Bhabanipur keeping in the high percentage of non-Bengali population here. He will be assisted by MPs Saumitra Khan and Jyotirnmoy Mahato as Co-Observers. All eight wards of Bhabanipur have been assigned to an MLA each while Sanjay Singh, the General Secretary of BJP will oversee the matters here organizational in charge. Rudranil Ghosh, the former candidate from the seat, has been appointed campaign committee chairman.
For the other two by-poll seats too, MP Nishit Paramanik has been made the Overall Observer for Samsherganj while MP Sukanta Majumder has been made the Overall in Incharge for both these seats. MP Khagen Murmu will be in charge of Samserganj seat along with co-in charge while MP Jagannath Sarkar will be In charge of Jangipur seat with MLA Gauri Sarkar Ghosh as Co-Incharge. 4 MLAs will be assigned between Jangipur and Samsherganj.
“We will give a tough fight to TMC, that’s why we have given the responsibility to three MPs and each ward will be looked after by our MLA’s,” says BJP state president Dilip Ghosh. A separate team is being set up to campaign on the issue of post poll violence and the NHRC report.
Since the probable candidate Priyanka Tibrewal has herself worked on post-poll violence, she will make it a major plank and weapon in her campaign.
Senior BJP leaders like JP Nadda and other senior Central ministers are expected to come for the campaign in Bhabanipur.
THIRD SIDE
On this battlefield, the Congress is not there but its partner, the Left, is there. The CPI(M) has fielded a young lawyer named Srijib Biswas who hails from Bhabanipur. With Congress missing, the Left is emphasising on a door-to-door and social media campaign. “We are not bothered what others are doing. We fight Banerjee 365 days and this battle is an addition. We will reach out to people,” Biswas told News18.
The Kurukshetra of Bhabanipur awaits what kind of Khela Hobe on September 30 — West Bengal is eagerly awaiting it.
