Aiyar story: From Howrah to home

CALCUTTA, January 27: Just when he thought his sneering wit and barbed tongue could combine with Mamata Banerjee's fire and brimstone to sto...

CALCUTTA, January 27: Just when he thought his sneering wit and barbed tongue could combine with Mamata Banerjee’s fire and brimstone to storm Jyoti Basu’s Red citadel, the curtains have come down on Mani Shankar Aiyar in Bengal. Spurned by Mamata, a dejected Aiyar left on Sunday evening to try his luck in native Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu, which he once promised to turn into “India’s Dubai”.

As he departed from Bengal however, Aiyar made no effort to conceal his disappointment. Clearly baffled that Mamata did not understand the importance of Mani Shankar Aiyar’, he was still at pains to understand why the wilful Trinamul Congress leader turned down his claim for the Howrah constituency.

Aiyar was the first Congress leader at the national level to have jumped on to Mamata’s bandwagon when she decided to break away from the Congress to form the Trinamul Congress. He was promptly made the national co-ordinator of the new outfit.

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His name figured high on the list of the 10 candidates Mamata announcedat her first election meeting in Calcutta. He went on to tour several West Bengal districts where he sought to match Mamata’s ire against Jyoti Basu. Only last week he rushed to Bhubaneswar ostensibly carrying a message from her to Sonia Gandhi. Mamata would return to the Congress, he told Sonia, if the latter took over the reins of the party from Sitaram Kesri. Apparently, things were not going easy for him even at this stage. “What is the big deal about this message to Sonia,” asked Mamata’s close lieutenant, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, adding, “Hasn’t Mamata herself said the same? Besides, what is Mani Shankar’s political standing?” While Mamata herself was silent on the issue, Bandyopadhyay echoed her unspoken thoughts.

In between, Aiyar made two trips to Darjeeling to try and persuade Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) leader Subash Ghising to support his candidature as a Trinamul Congress candidate from there. Ghising however cold-shouldered him, dashing his hopes for an assured victory. Aiyar thenpitched for Howrah, the once proud industrial town across the Hooghly river from Calcutta. But Mamata had already announced the candidature of retired IAS officer Bikram Sarkar from Howrah. Aiyar’s famed oratory powers had failed to impress the irrepressible leader.

He was offered a choice between two other industrial towns — Asansol and Barrackpore — with a large pool of non-Bengali voters. But Aiyar developed cold feet as the two constituencies are known to be CPI(M) strongholds.

With time running out, he decided he would keep his date with Bengal some other time. “My voters in Mayiladuthurai beckoned me,” he said on Sunday before leaving Calcutta. He plans to contest the seat — which he won in 1991 by 1.62 lakh votes — as an Independent this time.

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But he left Bengal with Howrah still in his heart, “I would come back if I was given Howrah.” Until then, it’s over to Mayiladuthurai.