Left candidate meets Somnath

“I have become your fan after seeing you on TV. We are going through tough times. You must fight,’’ Chatterjee told the CPM candidate who went there with party’s state secretariat member Rabin Deb.

Ritobrata said he was quite moved by the gesture of the octogenarian leader. The CPM had lined up an array of its top leaders including politburo member Sitaram Yechury,Bhattacharjee,state secretary Biman Bose and a host of its state leaders for the high profile Parliamentary constituency.

Campaign for the constituency,which has 15 lakh voters and which has sent Mamata Banerjee to Lok Sabha six times since 1991,ended on Monday. The Trinamool,also taking things seriously had lined up all its top leaders including Banerjee who campaigned here on two occasions.

Sending Ritobrata to the expelled CPM leader’s house is also seen as a clever move by the party CPIM to keep the octogenarian leader in good humour since Chief Minister Banerjee also keeps in touch with him,meeting him once after she became the CM. And after Chatterjee,the CPM candidate went to the house of another estranged leader of the party,former state Finance Minister Ashoke Mitra. “Mitra also blessed me and asked me to work hard,’’ Banerjee told Indian Express.

Pitched against Banerjee is Subrata Buxi of Trinamool Congress,who is also minister for Transport and PWD.

Meanwhile the Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for the by-election. Twenty companies of central paramilitary forces will be deployed to guard the 1900 booths of the constituency. “We asked for 48 companies but we are getting only 20 companies. Tomorrow we will get to know how many policemen of Kolkata police will be available for us,’’ Saibal Burman,joint CEO for Bengal said.