Voting in the Natabari constituency will be held in the fourth phase of the West Bengal assembly election which is scheduled for April 10.
This year, the khela has changed.
As you cross Chak Chaka, take the silk-smooth road towards the Kaljani bridge and enter Bhuchungmari, your eyes meet many huge banners asking the people of Natabari to vote for its 'nijer chhele'. 'Vote for [your] own son Rabindranath Ghosh', the TMC candidate and the sitting MLA from the constituency.
On the right side of the road are numerous saffron flags with the lotus on them. A smiling PM Modi is asking Natabari to 'vote for development, vote for Mihir Goswami', the BJP's candidate. Till October last year, Mihir Goswami and Rabindranath Ghosh were colleagues. Both worked together in the TMC straight from their early years. This election, both Goswami and Ghosh are at pretty much the fag end of their political careers. Both of them are on the wrong side of 60, and both of them have this one last battle to fight before they declare khela shesh.
In 2016, Mihir Goswami won the Cooch Behar Dakshin seat on behalf of the TMC. He joined the BJP in the end. In 2021, the BJP sent him to Natabari. Now, Natabari is gearing up for a fight between TMC and ex-TMC hopefuls. TMC began well and declared its candidates on March 5, the BJP took two more weeks to announce its candidates for Natabari and Cooch Behar Dakshin, robbing the ticket-holders from these two constituencies of priceless campaign days. The result is evident on the ground. The Trinamool flags and posters are all evenly divided across the main road that cuts through the Gram Panchayats. The BJP poll paraphernalia is concentrated in mostly the populated areas. So you will see their posters and flags at bus stops, where one Gram Panchayat melds into another, and on the shops that dot two sides of the road.
When we reach Natabari, the weather app on my phone says 37 degrees. Cooch Behar hardly sees this kind of heat in April. But then, climate change is real, and mercury has been steadily reflecting that. The day the Prime Minister arrived in Cooch Behar, it was 40 degrees. Visuals of the PM wiping the sweat off his face and forehead made it to all channels local and national - for the mere fact that the venue of his address, Rash Mela Ground, was packed to the brim. Some people even got themselves seats atop branches in nearby trees to catch a glimpse of the country's head talking to the people of Cooch Behar.
In this humid heat, we come across Ganesh Das and Jodu Das. They are both dressed in a gamchha. You can count the ribs on their bare torsos: hunger trumps eight-pack diets here. They are sitting under a tree to catch a breath between farmwork and home.
Ganesh Das and Jodu Das are wheat and jute farmers. They have about two bighas of land - the proverbial do-bigha zameen - and tell us their problem is irrigation or the lack of it. They depend on rains and climate change is making the cycle unpredictable.
“Yes, the TMC has done a lot for us. If the government has done something for us, we are happy about it. If they can solve this water problem, it will be helpful for us," says Jodu Das. We ask them about the scanty presence of the BJP in the area. Have they campaigned here? Ganesh Das replies, "BJP, TMC, Left have all campaigned. There are more TMC flags, but all parties have been here."
Three kilometres down the road, saffron has swallowed the blue-and-white flags. We meet Sumitra Das at the point where Gram Panchayat 1 ends. The mood here, like the party flags, has changed. Das says, "The TMC government has done nothing for us. My vote is for change. We are hopeful of a better future."
At the end of this road, the government signboard thanks us for visiting Natabari Gram Panchayat 1. A BJP flag is firmly tucked in by its side. Above it is a banner saying Vote for BJP's Mihir Goswami. On the other side of the road, TMC's poster says Natabari nijer chhele Rabindranath Ghosh ke chay. Natabari wants its own son.
We have been on the road the entire day and stop for a cup of cha at a hole in the wall. The wall outside has BJP exhorting people to walk to Nabanna and oust the ruling TMC government. An amused Mamata Banerjee looks out of a poster on the same wall, saying ‘Bangla Nijer Meyeke Chai’. (Bengal wants its own daughter)
The Left, meanwhile, hasn't yet deserted the battleground. Student leader Akik Hasan is contesting the elections from CPI(M), backed by the United Front - the Sangjukta Morcha. Our cha-shingara has arrived. A plate of ‘mixture’ — bhujia and sweet boondi, a delicacy here — is placed before us. The first sip of this hard-sweet tea helps wash much of the day's tiredness away. As we bite into the shingara, the loudspeakers ferry a voice from the other end of the bazaar. A Left leader is speaking at Natabari. He has a solid story to tell his audience: the story of Saumitra Khan and Sujata Mondal. Saumitra is the BJP MP from Bishnupur. His wife Sujata Mondal Khan switched over to the TMC just last December and political journalists in Bengal got the story of the year: the BJP MP, whose wife is now in TMC.
So the Khans are the perfect dart-board for the Left this election. You can kill the BJP bird and the TMC bird with the same dart. "The 48-inch TV in the Khan household is now split down the middle. TMC gets 24 inches and BJP gets the other 24 in the Khan drawing-room," booms out of the loudspeakers in Natabari, "When Narendra Modi announced a lockdown and migrant workers returned to Cooch Behar, we stood by them. Sarkar-e nei, darkar-e-achhi. We're not the government, we're by the people in times of need. So the people of Natabari have now decided Darkar-e Pashe Pai, Sarkar-e Chai. We get you beside us in times of need; we want your government."
A bicycle crosses us, the rider busy on the phone. We ask him the big question: which 'sarkar' do they want on May 2? Who will Natabari vote for on April 10? "Dekhi - let's see," is the one-word answer.
comments
Other categories
Recent Comments
