If there’s one Lok Sabha constituency in Bengal that has become synonymous with one political leader, it’s Kolkata Dakshin, or Calcutta South as it was known before 2009, which has sent Mamata Banerjee to Parliament for six consecutive terms. And one of its Assembly segments, Bhabanipur, is represented by the chief minister herself.
It’s also one of Bengal’s most cosmopolitan and socio-economically diverse Lok Sabha seats. And the task to win it for Mamata has once again been entrusted to Mala Roy, the 66-year-old former leader of the Congress and the NCP who has a chequered past with Mamata.
Roy, who cut her teeth in student politics in the 1970s, has had a fairly difficult relationship with Mamata, first in the 1990s and then again in the 2010s. But the Trinamool boss has again reposed her faith in Roy to retain the seat she won with a margin of a little over 1.55 lakh votes in 2019, despite trailing in 26 of the 59 civic wards that are part of the constituency.
“People of all ages, all social strata, all communities, everybody… trust Mamata Banerjee here, and nobody else,” said Roy, the first woman chairperson of the 148-year-old Kolkata Municipal Corporation, who has been fiercely loyal to the chief minister (and has been rewarded handsomely for it) since returning to the Trinamool in 2015.
“Having extensively campaigned in every nook and cranny of the constituency, I am very confident of doing much better,” added Roy, who secured around 47.5 per cent of the votes in the constituency that comprises seven Assembly segments --- Kasba, Behala Purba, Behala Paschim, Kolkata Port, Bhabanipur (Mamata’s seat since she left Parliament), Rashbehari and Ballygunge.
This being a prestige fight for Trinamool, the party has fielded some of her most trusted lieutenants — Calcutta mayor and minister Firhad Hakim, state president and Rajya Sabha member Subrata Bakshi (who won twice from the seat), and the party’s south Calcutta organisational district chief Debasish Kumar — to pull out all the stops and ensure a handsome win.
Mamata’s nephew and heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee, also a resident of the constituency, spent a considerable time marshalling forces and strategising for the seat that goes to polls along with eight others from the state in the final phase on Saturday.
“We will surely win all nine in the last phase. But victory in Diamond Harbour (Abhishek’s seat) and Kolkata Dakshin, perhaps, is the most guaranteed,” said Trinamool’s Behala Purba MLA Ratna Chatterjee.
The constituency has over 27 per cent Muslims, besides around 2 per cent of other minorities, such as Christians, Sikhs and Jains. There is a 16-odd per cent Scheduled Castes population, besides a small (less than 1 per cent) Scheduled Tribes population.
While some of Calcutta’s most upscale neighbourhoods — housing some of the state’s richest — are in the constituency, it also has some of the city’s most densely populated slum clusters.
“Support from the lower-middle and lower-income groups will be enough for us to sail through in the seat. Eighteen wards, with large proportions of such people — including minorities — will make a huge difference,” said one of Trinamool’s backroom boys in the constituency.
“Maladi is getting over 50 per cent of the votes this time. Didi (Mamata) has done everything to ensure it,” he added.
In 2019, the BJP secured 34.64 per cent of the votes, the Left had 11.63, and the Congress, 3.53.
This time, the Left and the Congress are in alliance as part of the INDIA bloc and have fielded Saira Shah Halim of the CPM. She is the daughter-in-law of the late Marxist leader Hashim Abdul Halim, the daughter of Lt Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah, and the niece of actor Naseeruddin Shah.
Kolkata: CPI(M) candidate from Kolkata South constituency Saira Shah Halim during a road show for Lok Sabha polls, in Kolkata, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. PTI
In the 2022 Ballygunge Assembly bypoll against BJP turncoat Babul Supriyo, fielded by the Trinamool, she had managed to finish second, with over 30 per cent of the vote share.
“It is palpable that the people want change. They want neither the BJP, nor Trinamool. A decisive role will be played by young voters, and those from the middle classes,” said Halim.
The BJP has sent the outgoing Raiganj MP — purportedly against her wishes — to fight the three-way battle. A former junior Union minister, Debasree Chaudhuri is out to prove a point, and says she’s confident.
“Wait to be surprised by how good the results will be for us. Change is coming to Kolkata Dakshin,” she said.
Kolkata: BJP candidate Debasree Chaudhuri during a road show for Lok Sabha polls, in Kolkata, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. PTI
However, sources in her party have said in private that they don’t fancy the BJP’s chances in a constituency where one out of every three electors is Muslim, and a vast majority of urbane Bengali Hindus consider the saffron ecosystem alien, on account of its decidedly Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan priorities.
However, a BJP state unit source pointed out that there are considerable numbers of people whose mother tongue is Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marwari, Malayali, Telugu, and Odia.
“Anti-BJP Bengalis will not necessarily have the final say here. A lot of Muslim votes could be taken away from Trinamool by Saira, blunting their edge. Non-Bengali Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs prefer Narendra Modi to Mamata Banerjee,” he said.
“But a problem is the general reluctance of those economically better off to come out and vote, while those from economically challenged sections do it religiously. So, many of those who favour us in Kolkata Dakshin might make no difference, because they won’t vote,” added the source.
“It is immensely sad for us, as this constituency — called Calcutta South East back in 1952 — had sent (BJP’s parent Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder) Bharat Kesari Syama Prasad Mookerjee to Parliament.”
Kolkata Dakshin votes today
