Despite drawing large crowds all through his campaign, one of the questions that Bengali cinema’s superstar and Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Dipak Adhikari alias Dev has found difficult to grapple with was on his low attendance in Parliament. The actor-turned-politician’s attendance in the Lok Sabha was only 11%, one of the lowest in the country.
“I was very new; it took two years to realise what was going around,” Mr. Adhikari, one of the most popular actors in the Bengali film industry, has repeated often during his election campaign. As the campaign reached its peak, he has turned attention to the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds spent by him on the constituency, and began referring to his Bengali speech in Parliament on the ‘Ghatal masterplan’, a plan for constructing a dam on the Shilabati river, which floods large areas of the constituency every year.
By high margin
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Adhikari won the seat defeating the Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate Santosh Rana with a margin of 2.6 lakh votes.
This was one of the highest margins for any TMC candidate. Five years later, as Ghatal in Purba Medinipur goes to polls on May 12, he clearly remained the best bet for the ruling TMC.
However, like the efforts of the 36-year-old actor to change the discourse of the campaign from his low attendance in Parliament to the high disbursal of his MPLADS funds, the electoral contest for the seat has turned interesting. The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded former IPS (Indian Police Service) officer Bharati Ghosh, who is alleged to have favoured the TMC during her five-year stint as the Superintendent of Police (SP), Paschim Medinipur. The BJP’s candidature of Ms. Ghosh, who was considered very close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, from the seat, has turned the winning of Ghatal into a personal battle for Ms. Banerjee.
Threats, allegations
After a roadshow organised in support of Mr. Adhikari in Ghatal, the CM launched a direct attack on Ms. Ghosh, saying that the State government could have arrested her for her involvement in so many cases, but that they “were allowing her to contest.” “Don’t force me to open my mouth. If I were to make some of the text messages she sent as a police officer public, then there would have been no need for the campaign,” Ms. Banerjee claimed.
It is not only the TMC that is raising the political temperature for the contest at Ghatal, but also the BJP candidate, who is living up to her alleged reputation, and is seen losing her temper frequently during the campaign.
An FIR has already been registered against her comment “Thrash them like dogs”, directed at the TMC’s supporters on May 4. On May 9, only a day before campaigning for the seat was about to end, ₹1.13 lakh was seized from Ms. Ghosh’s vehicle.
While campaigning at the Keshpur Assembly segment under the Lok Sabha constituency on May 7, she lost her temper several times, often accusing the police of being hand in glove with the TMC leadership.
Ghatal comprises of seven Assembly segments, six of which (Panskura Paschim, Pingla, Debra, Daspur, Ghatal and Keshpur) fall under the Purba Medinipur district, and one (Sabang) in the Paschim Medinipur district.
It is primarily a rural constituency, with 90% voters residing in rural areas, and a high concentration of Scheduled Tribes and minorities.
The CPI has fielded Tapan Ganguly as its candidate, while the Congress candidate from the seat is Khandakar Mohammad Saifullah. During her public rallies at Ghatal, Ms. Banerjee has urged people to ensure that Mr. Dev wins with highest margin in the State for the second time, a claim that the Opposition, particularly the BJP, refutes, saying that much has changed in the politics of the State between 2014 and 2019.