In 2005-06, while playing for Mahindra United, Dipendu Biswas was diagnosed with a congenital heart problem. He was asked to quit football by the Club doctors but Biswas decided to continue. Biswas hates to give up, be it sports or a narrow loss to BJP’s Shamik Bhattacharya in his political debut. “I don’t consider this a setback. I think I’ve done well on my debut. I had a big lead (about 17,000 votes) in panchayat areas, but I’m a little clueless about why we failed to keep the momentum going in Basirhat Town and Taki,” Biswas says. He says that maybe his party couldn’t convince the people about “our mode of development”. “Overall, however, we’ve reduced the margin from 32,000 in the Lok Sabha elections to 1,586 now,” he says. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called him after the result was declared. “Didi called me and exhorted me to get ready for the bigger challenges that lie ahead. (TMC general secretary) Mukul Roy called me to inform that I would be their candidate in the 2016 polls as well.” Ahead of the bypolls, Biswas, a local boy, had exuded confidence. “I’m like a brother to these people and they will vote for me,” he had said. Now he says his defeat might prove to be a lost opportunity for the locals. “The Chief Minister is from our party. We’ve a sitting MP here. My victory would have accelerated the development process as far as infrastructure and facilities are concerned. Now we’ve to start afresh.” Biswas had burst onto the scene in 1996-97 and was immediately tipped as the next big thing in West Bengal football. By then, he already had led the country at Under-19 level. In 1998-99, he became one of the top earners in the Kolkata maidan when Mohun Bagan gave him a Rs 12 lakh contract. Then came a period of uncertainty following the heart problem. Biswas hung on gamely and already has his eyes set on 2016.
