As going gets tough,Romola weaves Subhas magic

Knowing it very well that Subhas’ name counts — he had represented the constituency for seven consecutive times — Romola’s campaign seems more about her husband and less about her own. One of her campaign posters at Nager Bazaar area in Dum Dum reads: “Subhas Chakraborty stood by you through thick and thin. We salute him.” Many more such posters dot the roadside in Lake Town,Bangur and Salt Lake,which fall under the Belgachhia (East) constituency.

While the image of Subhas dominates the posters,Romola is seen only in a few. Even when she is face-to-face with the voters,Romola seeks “blessings” by invoking her husband’s name.

“You took care of Subhasda. I am his wife. I seek your blessings,” she tells voters.

Romola,who used to be by her husband’s side in previous poll campaigns,knows that this time the fight is tough. Pitted against Sujit Bose of Trinamool Congress,once a close friend of Subhas who left the CPM for the Trinamool in 2005,Romola is leaving no stone unturned and also has no qualms in admitting that she depends a lot on the Subhas magic.

“How can one deny the presence of Subhas who won from this constituency for a record seven times. It is such an agony to ask for votes as I used to accompany him during earlier poll campaigns,” Romola told The Indian Express.

But it doesn’t seem to be a smooth ride for Romola. The statistics point to something else. In the last Assembly elections in 2006,Subhas had defeated Bose by a slender margin of just 1,749 votes — at a time when CPM-led Left Front had swept the state by bagging 235 of the total 294 seats. In addition to this,a lot of political landscape has changed since then. This year Lok Sabha election saw the phenomenal rise of the Trinamool Congress,which in alliance with the Congress party,decimated the Left Front to its worst electoral debacle. Since then,the Trinamool Congress has been on a winning spree.

One more factor that goes against the CPM is that while half of Belgachhia (East) constituency with about 3 lakh voters and 358 booths is in Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency,the other half has gone to Barasat Lok Sabha constituency — both won by the Trinamool in the last Lok Sabha elections.

“Of course there are conspiracies against the Left Font government,but I am exhorting people to foil the forces of destabilisation,” Romola added.

For the local CPM leaders too,Subhas,not Romola,is their candidate in this bypoll. “Subhasda is dead but 100 per cent he is our candidate. It is upon the good work that he did for the constituency as well as the state that we are in the fray asking for votes,” said Ravi Sarkar,CPM Dum Dum Zonal Committee secretary.

Trinamool candidate Bose,on the other hand,is not perturbed by Romola’s campaign. “Subhasda fell ill and died. It was so sad. But how can the CPM cash in on that. Elections in Bengal are fought on political issues,not on sympathy vote. I have no doubt that I will win,” Bose told The Indian Express.