No winners here

Dressed in a purple cotton sari, holding a red parasol above her head and beaming, Nafisa processes through the hutments behind Park Circus, waving regally. She never gets down from her open gypsy, can barely speak Bengali but says, ‘‘I think I’m going to defeat Mamata Banerjee. I represent the youth. I’m younger than her and I too am a daughter of Kolkata.’’

With her a handful of Youth Congress workers strive to whip up enthusiasm. ‘‘Please wave,’’ they plead. ‘‘This is Nafisa Ali.’’

‘‘Who is this?’’ asks Khali-ul-Rahman, a leather-worker in park Circus, pointing at Ali, ‘‘is it Sonia Gandhi?’’

There are barely any crowds, a few stragglers watch curiously. ‘‘Aren’t they sweet?’’ Nafisa smiles, ‘‘they say I’m the right person in the wrong chair.’’

In sharp contrast, in Basirhat village, 20 km from the Bangladesh border, a puffy-faced Mamata is screaming about her eternal fight against the CPI(M) to a massive crowd of Trinamool workers and supporters. ‘‘I am a woman of this earth!’’ she bellows, to the gathering of over 2,000, ‘‘I haven’t flown in from Delhi and Mumbai. I was born in the politics of this soil! I don’t fly high.’’

Is she worried that her support base has declined a little because of her unpredictable behaviour? The bandhs, the moods, the disruptive activities, the poor record as Railway Minister? ‘‘I’m not moody!’’ she yells, ‘‘I do what I think is right. I feel for the people. I am always with the people. I’m not just flying in from somewhere!’’ Is she worried about Nafisa Ali? ‘‘Who? Why don’t you ask me about other candidates, the CPI(M) candidate who is opposing me?’’

Mamata’s home is in Harish Chatterjee Street, Kalighat. The grimy street is lined with garbage, situated next to a nala, with garages, open drains and stray dogs running alongside. Chabi Mandal plies his boat up and down the nullah bringing in mud for moortis which he piles next to Mamata’s front yard.

Babul Majhi works as a driver. ‘‘Computer theke khabar jol pawa jabe naki? (Can you get drinking water from a computer?) We vote for Mamata because she lives among us, not with computers,’’ he says.

Writer Sunil Gangopadhyay says there are twin processes at work. The bhadralok are silent and marginalised because of the goondas, the violence and the lies of West Bengal politics. The destitute whom Mamata represents are becoming disillusioned because she is failing to build the party, to institutionalise her charisma, only being immature and unstable in Delhi.

In Basirhat, farmers and transporters say the CPI(M) reign of terror in booth capturing and forcible voting means Mamta doesn’t stand a chance against the Left in the rural areas. ‘‘Unfortunately, didi is our only leader. There is no one else in the Trinamool.’’

Bakibillah Ghazi, a Muslim farmer says he’s unhappy with didi’s tie-up with the BJP. But he adds that even though Nafisa is a Muslim, she still will not win.

But Youth Congress workers swear they’ll carry Nafisa to victory after campaigning begins in true earnest. The bhadralok are sceptical. Writer Mahasweta Devi says there is too much money and muscle power even in Kolkata. ‘‘Kolkata’s activism has undoubtedly declined,’’ she says, ‘‘the middle as well as the labouring class are caught between politics of glamour versus goondaism.’’ Whoever wins, Mamata or Nafisa, the loser seems to be South Kolkata.