‘Cosmopolitan’ seat looks at 3-way contest

Kolkata:

Chowringhee

is the microcosm of the

cosmopolitan

city that Kolkata stands for.

The old jelepara, kalwar patti, mashla patti near Janbazar and goala tuli off S N Banerjee Road share space with houses of subarno baniks and Gujaratis beyond Hind Cinema. The trading zone of Bowbazar,

Burrabazar

and Kolay Market are home to Hindi-speaking labourers.

Bowbazar

is dotted with old Bengali homes on Sankhari Para Lane and Durga Pituri Lane, where houses collapsed and suffered cracks in the Metro collapse. The other part of Chowringhee behind New Market, extending up to Ripon Street and Alimuddin Street, is a Muslim area. There is a strong Muslim presence near Nakhoda Masjid and behind Islamia hospital, comprising 38% of the electorate. Anglo-Indian areas, like

Bow Barracks

and Ripon Street, are now a shadow of the past.

Worried about the rise in BJP votes from the area, Trinamool candidate and MLA

Nayna

Bandyopadhyay, along with her husband, Trinamool LS leader

Sudip

Bandyopadhyay, have been trying to negate BJP’s bid “to polarize votes” with their personal contact. Sudip has been nursing the segment as part of North Kolkata parliamentary constituency for five terms. Sudip and Nayna have been able to hold the two major communities together. Chowringhee’s demography doesn’t allow candidates to be over-confident, but sources said Nayna seems to have an edge over the others.

Pitted against Nayna is

Santosh Pathak

of Congress, a councillor from Burrabazar Ward 45. BJP’s contender is

Devdutta Maji

, who runs an NGO. “The 10 councillors are my trusted lieutenants. In Ward 45, where the dominant population is of labourers and daily wage earners, I have promised to improve the civic amenities and solve the drinking water crisis. The Congress councillor has failed to deliver,” said Nayna. The most crucial among the councillors is Sana Ahmed, Iqbal Ahmed’s daughter and former Union minister Sultan Ahmed’s niece, who has a rapport with Ripon Street residents. “My ward has the highest voter concentration in Chowringhee. We reached out to every household and tried to deliver the benefits of government schemes. Muslim women see Mamata Banerjee as a progressive force. We are ensuring Covid tests and hospitalization,” Sana said. Nayna’s focus is also on families that had to move out of their homes damaged in the Metro disaster.

Pathak are banking on traditional Congress voters and Ward 45. “We promise to stand by the people,” he said. Pathak taking away a chunk of Hindi-speaking voters might help TMC. Maji wants to set sail on the “BJP wave” with the development slogan. “New Market needs attention as pavements are taken over,” he said.


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