He conquered the odds Didi put up

Bhattacharya, 49, took up the challenge nevertheless, travelling across the constituency that borders Bangladesh. He snagged 19 per cent of about 12 lakh votes, coming third. In the Basirhat South segment, he led by 32,000 votes over the Trinamool Congress winner, Idris Ali.
On Tuesday, Bhattacharya took the BJP into the West Bengal assembly, though with a slender margin of 1,586.

The odds had been against him. The CPM had held the seat since 1977, and almost half the voters are Muslim. Mamata Banerjee then took it up as a prestige fight, fielding leading footballer Dipendu Biswas, who is a local, and assigning five of 10 campaigning ministers to this seat.

Bhattacharya mustered local supporters for campaigning, holding street-corner meetings, small rallies, and padyatras. State BJP president Rahul Sinha and other leaders addressed a couple of rallies, but Amit Shah addressed his at Chowringhee, not Basirhat.

“I knew I would have to take on the might of the TMC. But I knew the people of this constituency, the poor and marginal people, were with us,” Bhattacharya said.

Articulate and affable, he is one of the key faces of the state BJP and often appears on TV panel discussions. A bachelor, he lives with his parents at Salt Lake. A graduate from Calcutta University, he had joined the RSS at age eight and become a BJP whole-timer in 1985, and general secretary in 2004, He lost his first assembly election, in 2006 from Shyampukur.