Close to eight decades since Independence and the Eastern Railways still has no direct train from Howrah to Bishnupur. It is routine for commuters to take the Howrah-Goghat local train. They get off at the one-horse railway station in Hooghly’s Arambagh and take a bus to Kamarpukur or Joyrambati, Kotulpur or Rajgram, Jaypur or Bishnupur.

At 10 in the morning that day, there were about 20 people at Goghat station. It is the weekend after the election results and these are traders returning home. All of them have heard of the newly elected Arambagh MP Mitali Bag, though they do not claim to know her. At the toto stand, too, they do not seem to be sure of where she lives. After one hour of cruising along the highway and stopping to ask for directions, I arrive at Datpur village and get off in front of a Shiv temple. Upon hearing me ask around, a woman instructs a little girl to show me the way to“Pishi’s house”.

At a distance, some men are trimming the branches of trees — neem, mango, mahogany — and supervising the entire operation is a middle-aged woman in a salwar-kameez. She is Mitali Bag.

Bag started her political career in 2013 as a member of the Hazipur gram panchayat. Five years later, she went on to become a member of the panchayat samiti. Last year, she climbed another level when she became a member of the zila parishad. And this year, the Trinamool decided to field her from Hooghly’s Arambagh, which comprises seven Assembly seats — Haripal, Tarakeswar, Pursurah, Arambagh, Goghat, Khanakul and Chandrakona. Arambagh is one of the 84 constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes and has been so since 2009.

Arambagh used to be the constituency of the Congress chief minister of West Bengal Prafulla Chandra Sen; he fought elections from here in the 1960s. Those days, the area was synonymous with bakeries and rice mills. From the 1990s, right through to 2010-15, it came to be known for its hatcheries. And today, its claim to fame is modern cold storages forpotatoes. Arambagh is one of the leading producers of potatoes.

Bag’s predecessor is Aparupa Poddar, also from the Trinamool. Poddar fell out of favour with her vote bank apparently because of her arrogant behaviour. Then there is the whole Narada controversy from 2016 and the allegation that she was among those who had accepted bribes. Despite this, she contested elections in 2019 and won by a slim margin of 1,142 votes. Taking a cue, the Trinamool leadership decided to pick a new face from Arambagh.

“The Trinamool had good reason to pick Bag,” says a partyworker from Arambagh who does not want tobe identified. He continues, “I-PAC conducted a year-long survey and identified locals who had a good chance of winning. Bag’s name was top of the list.”

A BJP worker from Goghat who does not want to be identified told The Telegraph that the party was sure it would win Arambagh this time if Poddar contested. He said, “Poddar is a Hindu married to a Muslim. She changed her name to Afrin Ali. How can a Muslim contest from a reserved seat?”

Bag refuses to comment onPoddar. “No comments,” she says, sounding quite the seasoned politician.

Bag and I are sitting in the backyard of her two-storey mud house. There is an SUV parked on one side. At the far end is a waterbody full of quacking ducks. There is a machan overlooking it, some children are sitting atop, chatting, eating muri. Bag spreads a sack and sits down on the ground. It is 39° Celsius that day,but it feels like 43.

Bag was born in this very house. She points to nothing in particular and says, “My pre-primary school there had a tin shed. There were no roads here. I used to walk along the raised embankment of the paddy fields on my way to school.”

There is some cultivable land that the family owns. Bag’s day starts there, planting saplings or simply checking on things. “I have struggled to reach where I am today,” she says. After her bachelor’s — some say she is the first woman from her villageto graduate — she started working with the village welfare body. Then in the early 2000s, when the Left Front was in power, her father went missing after he was forced to give away a portion of his land. “Later, when we found him, he had lost his mind,” says Bag. That was a turning point in her life and from the sound of it, this is what most likely lit the political fire within her.

As she tells it, within the ambit of Goghat Block II under Hazipur gram panchayat, she has tried to be there for anyone who has ever needed help. In 2006, she appeared for Group C exams but did not clear it. Four years later, she qualified as an anganwadi worker for integrated child development services. She started teaching primary school children in Goghat Block II from 2010.

One by one, Bag’s siblings gotmarried, but not her. In fact, this caught chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s attention while campaigning for Bag. Banerjee spoke about how Bag had not married as she was busy with social work. And the ground whisper is that at the time of elections, many people likened her to Banerjee in this regard. “Unlike city people, us villagefolk, we admire those who look after their parents,” says an old woman in Bag’s neighbourhood.

Bag the MP is full of plans. In Delhi, a whole new world awaits her. She says in an even tone, “But till June 19, I have a packed schedule. I want to start women-oriented programmes to make them independent.” She has done a lot for the people of Datpur as a member of the panchayat samity — a concrete road, two water tanks. Now, as an MP, Bag is determined to finish the incomplete railway project and connect Goghat to Bishnupur.