In a pocket of south Calcutta, a stone’s throw from chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s house, a party with negligible presence in Bengal has a strong support base.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has been winning many votes from the Baba Saheb Ambedkar Colony, right opposite Alipore Museum, the erstwhile Alipore jail.

So much so that the Trinamool Congress has had to deploy campaign managers to wrest some of those votes from Mayawati’s party.

In a close contest, all votes matter, a local Trinamool activist said.

Senior leaders have pitched in.

Calcutta’s mayor Firhad Hakim, also the local councillor, betrayed concern. “This is a place where a number of votes go to the Elephant (the BSP symbol). Some of them met me for some work. I urged them to vote for us this time,” Hakim said recently.

Ambedkar Colony was built decades ago. Some of its residents said it was built before Independence, as residential quarters for the waste collectors and street sweepers of the civic body, then known as the Calcutta Corporation.

It is part of the Kolkata South constituency and has 1,900 registered voters.

The BSP candidate for the seat is Firoza Khatun.

In 2019, the party had bagged 2,360 votes. A good number of these votes came from Ambedkar Colony, said Manoj Howlader, the president of the BSP’s Bengal unit. “We also get a considerable number of votes from Behala and Kasba, places with a good SC population,” he said.

“Most of us are from Scheduled Castes. We have been supporting the BSP because it fought for the larger bahujan samaj. The party fought against the oppression of people like us, who were never respected,” said Ravinder Rajwar, himself a waste collector and a staunch BSP supporter.

A picture of Mayawati’s mentor Kanshi Ram, the BSP founder, hangs from the wall of his quarters. Next to it is a portrait of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar.

Ambedkar’s picture hangs on the walls of many homes here. At least one club in the colony is also named after Ambedkar and another has a picture of Ambedkar on its signboard.

The largest club in size seems to be in the control of the Trinamool Congress. When The Telegraph visited Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Seva Samity on an afternoon last week, Trinamool flags were stacked on a table inside the club.

Inside, were photos of Ambedkar and Ravidas, a social reformer and a poet-saint of the Bhakti movement.

Trinamool flags were also fluttering from the windows of several buildings. Three
BSP posters from last year, with a call to take part in the death anniversary programme of Kanshi Ram, were still pasted on a wall. Flags or posters of no other party was visible.

There are about 1,900 voters in the colony. Rajwar thinks the BSP will bag many of these votes. He also admits that the party is still likely to finish second to Trinamool in this pocket.

Praskanva Sinharay, a political scientist who researches caste in Bengal politics, said the BSP’s vote bank becomes more distinguishable during local elections where the constituency size is smaller and the number of electors in each constituency fewer.

“There are pockets in Calcutta like Tangra where processions are held during the Ravidas birth anniversary celebrations. Sant Ravidas is one of the icons of Dalits and this annual procession reflects the BSP’s organisational presence in that area. Tangra has a large number of workers from the tannery industry living there,” he said.

“The organisational presence may not always translate into votes, but there are some party loyalists.”

Many residents of Ambedkar Colony admitted they were once voters of the BSP. With time, as the BSP’s state unit became weaker, many shifted their allegiance.

“Didi (Mamata Banerjee) is giving us benefits under the old-age pension, Lakhshmir Bhandar and other welfare schemes. Most people avail of the benefits of these schemes. The Trinamool now bags most votes but the BSP also bags a good number,” said Indra Deb, who runs a tea stall in the colony.

A resident of the colony said many people who were voters of the BSP retired from their work over the years and went back to their native places in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh. Their departure also cut into the vote bank of the party.