From slums, Bhaichung warms up for contest against architect of ‘Siliguri model’
Bhattacharya had mobilised opposition forces and defeated TMC in last year's election to Siliguri Municipal Corporation, which has come to be known as a "Siliguri model".
Bhaichung Bhutia campaigns by night in Siliguri. (Express Photo by Aniruddha Ghosal)
He spends his nights in slums in Siliguri, promising to play football with fans in the morning. As he walked around ward 46, many residents flocked to him for an autograph and a selfie.
Bhaichung Bhutia, 39, is aware that his celebrity status helps and also that it has pitfalls.“They said I am not one of them, that if I stay in a slum, I’ll fall sick. I haven’t fallen sick and I am not going anywhere,” he said.
A month ago, when his name was declared as the Trinamool Congress candidate for Siliguri, Bhaichung admitted he was “caught unawares”. Since then, though, he has been handling his own campaign, with the help of close friends and family. He has broken it into three sections, he said. In the morning he attends public meetings, in the afternoon he speaks to the media or party workers, and at night he visits the slums. Wednesday night, for instance, he spent at Champasari in ward 46, the largest and most densely populated in Siliguri.
The Opposition has called his strategy a gimmick and begun a campaign targeting him as a non-resident of Siliguri who won’t be available to voters.
“The Left is saying that I am not from here, that I will go away after the elections. This isn’t true,” Bhaichung said. “I have a house in Siliguri, I have a business here and I have a school in this neighbourhood. People know that. Anyone can come to me with their problems.”
Bhaichung, who had contested the last parliamentary polls from Darjeeling, lost to S S Ahluwalia of the BJP. This was followed by successive defeats in Siliguri for the Trinamool in the civic body elections and Siliguri Mahakauma Parishad elections.
Bhaichung’s current opponent Ashok Bhattacharya, formerly a minister and now the Siliguri mayor, is the poster boy of the Left revival. Bhattacharya is the architect of the “Siliguri model” — the Left and the Congress in partnership — which is now at play across Bengal.
To add to his difficulties, Bhaichung faces opposition from within. TMC sources said his nomination has upset a number of senior leaders in Darjeeling parliamentary constituency. “If he defeats Bhattacharya, that makes us redundant. He is an automatic ministerial candidate and our opposition will simply be forgotten,” a source admitted.
Since the 2011 defeat, Bhattacharya and party members have worked closely with other opposition leaders, particularly those of the Congress, striving to win back voters and consolidate.
As for the “Siliguri model” everyoneis talking, whatever doubts some may have of it, Ashok Bhattacharya himself has none.
“It is the need of the hour. The opposition parties have been united because they don’t want the vote against TMC to get divided,” said Bhattacharya, minister for two decades until he lost in 2011. “What has Mamata Banerjee done for people here? People have starved to death in the tea gardens.”
At the Siliguri CPM office, Bhattacharya’s close aide Jibesh Sarkar said, “It didn’t happen in one day. It started even before the 2011 defeat. The Congress and the TMC were fighting over their mayoral candidate and Congress mayor Gangotri Dutta formed the board with our support.”
Since the 2011 defeat, Bhattacharya and party members have worked closely with other opposition leaders, particularly those of the Congress, striving to win back voters and consolidate. Mamata Banerjee had attacked Bhattacharya in a rally last week: “What development has happened in Siliguri? What has this person done for Siliguri?” The TMC has been arguing that all development work in Siliguri has happened under the aegis of the North Bengal development department.
Bhattacharya has retorted that by referring to him as “that man”, Mamata insulted the elected position he holds.
One thing that makes the CPM confident is that top Trinamool leaders including Alok Chakraborty, a former working president of the Darjeeling district committee, and Jyoti Tirkey, district president of the women’s wing, have gone back back to the Congress.
Bhaichung’s campaign, meanwhile, is punctuated with football references. In the words of a close aide, he is “fighting in the dying seconds of the match”. When he speaks of development, voices in the crowd egg him on to “put one past the Left defence”. The Opposition says he “will not be able to score here”, his supporters cite his “work rate on the pitch”.
One football reference, however, might prove most critical.
“People know their football in Siliguri,” said Anindo Basu, football coach for a club. “They know that a new player might come and score a few goals and then not gel with the team. Or he might completely change the team. Should we, as voters, stick to the player we know has performed in the past, or go with the new, exciting prospect?”
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