Didi’s Debutants

In the Bengali cultural dictionary,mastermoshai or teacher,is a bespectacled,frugally dressed man,a character that now lives on mostly in grainy prints of Bengali black-and-white films. Sixty-two-year-old Jiban Mukherjee,a former professor of history at Vidyasagar College in the city,effortlessly brings alive that character as he canvasses for votes from Sonarpur on the southern fringes of Kolkata.

“Mastermoshai is always in character. During the campaign too,he has been scolding people who ask silly questions or try and taunt him,” says a Trinamool Congress party worker.

Mukherjee doesn’t deny he has a temper. “I have been a teacher for more than three decades. Talking was an integral part of my profession,but the amount of talking you have to do here,the kind of things you have to hear and say,any sensible person will lose his temper,” he says with a furious shake of his head.

His family,he says,has always endorsed right-of-centre politics. Though he joined the Trinamool after it was formed in 1998,he remained a fringe observer till recently. “I had no wish to contest an election,” he says. “Our leader (Mamata Banerjee) asked me to fight for her party in this constituency (Sonarpur South). I was initially surprised because I have never been the kind of person who makes the rounds of political leaders’ homes. My vocation as a teacher has always been my priority,” says Mukherjee.

It’s not difficult to believe him. The living room of his simple two-storey house has a four poster bed and five cabinets spilling over with books. Tolstoy’s War and Peace shares shelf space with the Atharva Veda Samhita. A series of books on the Communist Party in Bengal sits alongside volumes on the theatre history of Bengal. Mukherjee’s wife laughs,“After we got married,we lived in a rented house and I remember the landlord asking me,‘Who have you rented this place for? Books’?”

In fact,history books written by Mukherjee in English and Bengali are part of the state school curriculum. “We wrote books according to strict guidelines issued by the secondary education board. There was hardly much space to exercise your intellect,” says Mukherjee,who studied at the elite Ramakrishna Mission Residential College in Narendrapur on the fringes of Kolkata,but is originally from Dinajpur in north Bengal.

“Ours was a time when we were politically aware and concerned about our state. However,the present image of politics in India is so grimy that the youth stay away from it,” he says. He speaks from experience. His US-based IT professional son had vigorously objected to his contesting the elections. “My son thinks politics is not for someone from a simple middle class family,” he says.

As Mukherjee climbs up to his study,another floor chock-a-block with books,he barks into the phone,presumably at a well-wisher who thinks he needs to check his temper: “Listen,I overheard a man saying that if I have a temper even before the elections,I will probably fly off the handle when I become an MLA. Why should I listen to such idiots? I warned him against badmouthing me and told him that my work will speak for itself. Don’t ask me to be easy on such pests.”

Mastermoshai is still in character.Piyasree Dasgupta

‘I’ll do something for poor Muslims’

Rukbanur Rehman,brother of Rizwanur Rehman,chapra,nadia district

His brother’s death shook up the establishment,but it also rattled Rukbanur Rehman’s world beyond anything he could have imagined. Rehman’s younger brother,Rizwanur Rehman,had died a mysterious death on September 21,2007,following his marriage to Priyanka Todi,daughter of Kolkata businessman Ashok Todi,a high-profile case that saw some of the top police officers being shunted out and left the Left Front government embarrassed.

Rehman,who worked for a private firm,quit his job after his brother’s death. He did some “social work” but was roped in by Mamata Banerjee and made a member of the Railway Passenger Amenities Committee. He resigned from the committee after the party asked him to contest the assembly election from Chapra constituency in Nadia district.

“I never thought I would join politics but it was Didi who gave us all the help after my brother’s death. In fact,she continues to take care of all our needs,financial as well as legal. The chief minister too made promises but never cared to fulfill them,’’ says Rehman,41,an MSc from Calcutta University and a resident of Tiljala in eastern Calcutta.

Rehman contested the 2010 civic elections on a Trinamool Congress ticket,but lost to the RSP. “But this time,I want to win because I want to do something for the poor,particularly poor Muslims,’’ says Rehman,who is pitted against Shamsul Islam Mollah of the CPI(M). He sounds like a seasoned politician when he says,“In the parliamentary elections of 2009,the Trinamool had a lead of 12,500 votes in this assembly constituency. But we can’t afford to be complacent.’’ Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay

‘I am in politics because I want to improve education’

BROJA MOHAN MAJUMDAR,retired headmaster,Howrah South

Howrah Dakshin,Broja Mohan Majumdar (National Teacher)”,reads the Trinamool Congress’s list of candidates for the elections that begin on April 18. Majumdar,a retired headmaster honoured with the national teacher award,is the Trinamool Congress candidate from Howrah South.

At 72,Majumdar,who,as headmaster of Howrah Vivekananda Institution for 28 years,has guided his students through several challenges,is preparing for a new chapter. But he insists that he sees no conflict between education and politics. “Politics touches every aspect of public life and so does education. I am in politics because I want to improve education,” says Majumdar,who taught Bengali.

The retired headmaster says his association with Mamata Banerjee began in 1995,when,as a Youth Congress leader,Banerjee felicitated him in Howrah district after he got the President’s award for his work as a teacher.

So when the Trinamool Congress was founded in 1998,the teacher became a party member.”I did not join the party with much fanfare. I was always part of the crowd and Mamata noticed me,” he says. Majumdar is now a core committee member of the Trinamool Congress.

In his four decades as a teacher,Majumdar says he has seen Left Front politics at its worst. In 1971,a headmaster of a nearby school,whom he considers his political guru,was murdered as part of the anti-Naxal movement. Most importantly,he says,the Left squandered its opportunity in education.

“During these three decades of Left rule,we were never free to teach the way we wanted to. When English was removed from the primary section,we would hide and teach students English. There was no mention of Vivekananda in the curriculum,” says Majumdar.

Majumdar claims that while he always wanted to contest elections,he did not push for a ticket. “The initiative by Mamata Banerjee to bring people from different walks of public life into politics will strengthen the idea of democracy,” says Majumdar.Shiv Sahay Singh

‘Victory will come to us,it is the wish of the Almighty’

ANUP GHOSAL,singer,Uttarpara,Hooghly

For over four decades,singer Anup Ghosal’s voice has cast its spell on movie fans. Now,the Trinamool Congress is hoping he will hold voters in similar thrall. The singer is the TMC’s candidate from Uttarpara Assembly segment in Hooghly district.

Ghosal first made his mark as a singer in Satyajit Ray’s Goopye Gyne Bagha Byne in 1968. Since then,he has sung in nearly 300 films and recorded over 800 songs. In 1981,he was awarded the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for another Ray film,Hirak Rajar Deshe. He also sang the soulful Tujhse naaraz nahin zindagi in Shekhar Kapur’s Masoom.

Though Ghosal has never been a Trinamool member,he has performed at many events where party chief Mamata Banerjee was present. But,says Ghosal,he was surprised when he got a call from the party office a few weeks ago,urging him to contest the elections. “I told them that I do not know anything about politics. I said I can only contest if Trinamool leaders at the grassroots support me,” says Ghosal,who has a doctorate in music.

He now regularly shuttles between Kolkata and Uttarpara to hold meetings and interact with people in the constituency. “As a candidate,one gets a chance to connect with people directly,” says Ghosal. He hopes to use this opportunity well. “People are aggrieved. Whatever the Left Front promised the people,they didn’t deliver even a fraction of it. I see this as an opportunity to reach out to the people and do something for them,” says Ghosal.

Taking inspiration from the Trinamool slogan,Ghosal has come out with a collection of songs called Ma,Mati,Manusher Gaan (Song of the Mother,Land and People).

Ghosal is hoping his popularity as a singer will translate into votes but admits no one can predict the outcome of an election. But he makes no attempt to hide his optimism as he hums a tune from his new album,“Amader joy hobe hobei eita vidhata amok vidhan (Victory will come to us,it is the wish of the Almighty).”Shiv Sahay Singh

‘I’ll change the system’

PADMA MAHATO,school teacher,Sandeshkhali,Sunderbans

It’s 4 p.m. and Padma Mahato has just reported to work at the Sandeshkhali primary school. Ever since Mahato was declared a Trinamool Congress candidate from Sandeshkhali constituency of North 24 Parganas district,she has had to pack a lot into her days. She is up at 6 a.m. and after cooking and cleaning,she is out campaigning at 8 a.m. By 4 p.m.,she is at the school for two hours of teaching,after which she goes out to campaign till about 8 p.m.

Sandeshkhali is part of the Sunderbans,where a network of creeks and swamps slices the land into islands big and small. In these parts,the sea has always played its part in people’s lives but it wasn’t until May 2009,when cyclone Aila struck and water rushed in from the Bay of Bengal through breaches in the embankments,that Mahato felt powerless. “Many of my neighbours were killed that year and I wanted to do something for them. But I was a housewife and a school teacher and I could do nothing,” she says.

But after the delimitation exercise turned Sandeshkhali into a reserved seat,Mahato felt she should give politics a try. She wasn’t a complete novice either: her father-in-law Himanshu Mahato is a Trinamool worker in Mathbari gram panchayat in Sandeshkhali and Mahato says her grandfather Mahadeb Mahato was a Congress leader in the early 90s.

So when she heard that the Trinamool was looking for an SC candidate,she took her resumé to the party camp in Sandeshkhali. Sandeshkhali constituency,which includes seven islands,has 15 gram panchayats,of which 10 are ruled by the TMC-BJP alliance and five are ruled by the Left Front. Abani Roy of the CPI(M) is the sitting MLA from Sandeshkhali constituency but this time,the ruling party has fielded Nirapada Sardar from the seat.

Mahato knows it won’t be an easy fight. “The day the candidate list was declared and I was named the TMC candidate,Sardar and his men threatened me. If the CPM thinks they will overpower me because I am a woman and an SC candidate who is new to politics,they are wrong. I will give them a tough fight,” she says.

Mahato has her work charted out. “The reason I am in politics today is because I want to construct concrete dykes in Sandeshkhali. During high tides,the dykes get breached and water flows in,” she says. Next,she says,she will weed out fake names from the BPL list. In Sandeshkhali block,there are 23,000 BPL card holders and according to official sources,around 5,000 of them aren’t entitled to these cards. “In our area,BPL cards are distributed to all people who identify themselves with the CPM. If a villager is not in the CPM camp,he is denied all these government schemes. I will change the system,” says Mahato. Madhuparna Das