NANDIGRAM: Rebel Trinamool Congress member Suvendu Adhikari was in a new avatar when he revisited Nandigram on Monday to inaugurate ‘Ras Utsav’, coming just 20 days after his Nandigram Diwas rally here. With ‘Hare Krishna’ on his lips, the rebel leader didn’t forget to mention that he was a “sevak” (servant) of the people and would continue to remain so.
Suvendu skipped politics while speaking from the religious platform. But his short speech during the ‘nagar kirtan’ flag-off had strong political overtones. He talked about two avatars — Sri Krishna and Sri Rama — though ‘Ras Utsav’ is a celebration of Lord Krishna “meeting his disciples”.
Political observers were quick to read into his religious overtures, seeing it as the Trinamool member’s desperate bid to protect his support base from BJP.
Monday’s programme indicated that the rebel leader was trying to reach out to Hindu and Vaishnavite voters at a time when leaders of the Nandigram Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) were nowhere around him.
Suvendu, under chief minister Mamata Banerjee, was the chief patron of BUPC, a rainbow coalition of forces against the Left Front government in the Nandigram land agitation that eventually catapulted Mamata to power in 2011.
Locals said that Suvendu was a regular during festivals at Janaki Mandir in Nandigram besides visiting the pilgrim centres of Ayodhya, Chitrakoot and Sitamarhi on the Ramayana circuit. The organizers said that ‘Dada’ gave his consent to come to the ‘Ras Utsav’ for the first time in the past six years. Following East Midnapore’s legacy of Hinduism and Vaishnavism, Suvendu offered tributes to Lord Krishna, Lord Rama and Devi Durga.
On Monday, TMC’s Nandigram block president Meghnad Pal and Nandigram panchayat samiti president Banashree Khanra were among the few politicians around Suvendu, indicating the divide between ‘Dada’ and Trinamool loyalists. However, there was huge enthusiasm among the youths, who jostled to get closer to their ‘Dada’.