The race for the Bidhannagar mayor’s seat is cast wide open between a loyalist and a former renegade, both of whom have pledged their allegiance to the Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee and made a beeline fore the Kalighat residence of the party supremo.

For Sabyasachi Dutta the race looks a wee bit harder as he must leave behind his turncoat credentials and prove his loyalty doubly so. That is the reason why soon after the election results were declared, Dutta travelled all the way from Salt Lake to Kalighat and Chetla, seeking the blessings of the three top leaders in the party.

Accompanied by his wife Indrani, Sabyasachi’s first stop was at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street, the residence of Mamata Banerjee.

“Didi asked my wife what did I give her for Valentine’s day. When she said nothing, Didi gifted her a saree,” Sabyasachi said later. "Anybody can sit on the chair, but the real mayor will be Mamata di," Sabyasachi added.

Though Mamata did announce the name of the next mayor of Siliguri, she has maintained a silence over the three other civic bodies where the party has registered a thumping victory. “After I return from North Bengal, we will discuss the mayoral issue in our party and decide on the candidates,” Mamata said.

Had Sabyasachi not quit the Trinamul to hitch his stars to then fledgling BJP in Bengal, the first mayor of Bidhannagar would have been assured of a second term. In 2015, when Bidhannagar was made a municipal corporation, then local MLA Sabyasachi was Mamata’s first choice as the inaugural mayor.

Four years later Sabyasachi quit the party and contested the 2021 Assembly polls on a BJP ticket, only to lose. Last year, he made a quiet return to the party and has since been waiting for his chance. The 2022 civic polls victory has provided him with a chance to resurrect his political career. Sabyasachi also met Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee and Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim to keep the power lobbies within the Trinamul appeased.

About an hour after Sabyasachi left Kalighat, the outgoing Bidhannagar mayor Krishna Chakraborty, who own from ward 29, went to Kalighat. “I have been a loyal soldier of the party. Whatever Mamata di tells me to do, I will do. If she wants me to carry the party flag on the streets, I am ready to do that,” said Chakraborty.

Krishna Chakraborty Facebook

She, however, clarified that unlike her rival Sabyasachi, she had no plans to meet Abhishek. 'He is like a son to me. Mamata Banerjee is the leader for both of us. Who wants to meet whom is his/her prerogative," she said. Once a close aide of Mamata when she made her debut as a giant-slayer MP from Jadavpur, Chakraborty has maintained close ties with 30B Harish Chatterjee Street.

“We used to stay together, she has been with me since 1984. In fact, she had a love affair and later married while she was with me,” Mamata said.