“It’s not my fault the company has stopped making green ice cream!” shouted vendor Uday Dhar to a customer over a blaring chorus of Khela Hobe playing from a “box” on a rickshaw at DA Block.

The setting was the afternoon on May 2. It had become clear that Sujit Bose would be winning the election and Trinamul supporters, smeared in green abir, had gathered as close to the counting centre — Bidhannagar College — as the police would allow.

“Everyone’s first request is some green-coloured ice cream but that particular lemon flavour has been discontinued by the company,” Dhar told The Telegraph Salt Lake.

So those like Damini Mondal of CA Block were forced to settle for the Rs 25 watermelon cooler, that was orange for the most part but had about an inch of green at the bottom. “At least there’s some green to it. This will have to do,” she shrugged, before biting off the top.

A girl has a watermelon stick, that has both orange and green colours Picture by Debasmita Bhattacharjee

By evening, the fan following had shifted outside the college and ice cream was on the victorious party.

“We’ve been waiting for hours through heat and rain to congratulate our leaders and it was very nice of the Trinamul bosses to give us free ice cream,” smiled Kajal Maity of Duttabad. She described herself as “hebby khushi” with the arrangement.

But again the colour of the moment eluded them. “I know orange is the BJP colour but politics aside, the flavour tastes good. It’s soothing,” she said, taking a bite out of her orange stick.

New ice cream vendors had arrived by then, reaping the good fortune. “People are reluctant to have ice cream these days in fear of catching a chill and ending up with Covid somehow. Moreover, victory marches got banned so the gathering is paltry. On any other year, I would have sold out everything by noon,” said ice cream seller Raju Nandy. “Still, thanks to the party footing the bill, many have come for the freebie and I’ve done business of about Rs 6,000. That’s a handsome amount in these dark times.”

As for constant requests for green sticks, Nandy had come up with a witty reply to pacify them. “I’m handing them orange sticks and asking them to finish off BJP with every bite,” he laughed.