In Midnapore, close pals fall back on frenemies for a win

MIDNAPORE: Home to India’s oldest IIT, a major railway hub, Kalaikunda air force station and historical and archaeological sites, and revered for its stellar role in India’s freedom struggle, Midnapore parliamentary constituency is witnessing a high-stakes political clash between close friends — Agnimitra Paul from BJP and June Maliah from Trinamool Congress. Both are more focused on resolving internal party conflicts than devising strategies to outdo each other.

In a constituency that has seen voters support different parties in each election since 2009, the socialites from Kolkata are engaged in a close fight for the seat, 150km away from home. BJP, which currently holds the constituency, picked Paul — the party’s mahila morcha chief and Asansol South MLA — over sitting MP Dilip Ghosh, who has been asked to contest from Bardhaman Durgapur constituency.

On the other hand, Trinamool chose Maliah, an actor-turned-politician and the party’s Midnapore MLA, mostly to avoid factional feuds with multiple local party functionaries. They had been vying for the seat before CM Mamata Banerjee announced Maliah’s name from the Brigade dais two months ago.

A Left bastion from 1980 to 2009, actor-turned-politician Sandhya Roy had won the seat on a Trinamool ticket in 2014. BJP’s Ghosh, however, turned the tables and won Midnapore by a margin of nearly 90,000 votes, promising a strong organisational network in the belt.

Although Trinamool swept the 2021 assembly elections here, winning six of Midnapore’s seven assembly segments (Egra, Dantan, Keshiary, Kharagpur Sadar, Kharagpur, Narayangarh and Midnapore) barring Kharagpur Sadar, BJP insiders say Ghosh had a tight grip over party workers and high chances of winning the seat by a huge margin.
His departure has dampened the collective morale of senior workers, and this is likely to hamper Paul’s first attempt at winning a parliamentary seat.

Paul, however, says initial disagreements have been resolved, thanks to the intervention by Suvendu Adhikari and the party’s central leadership. “I don’t live in the past and what I am seeing today is a solid base of workers and supporters here in Midnapore. I am confident of my victory,” said the mother of two, who once designed costumes and personal wardrobes of Sridevi, Mithun Chakraborty (he had even publicly declared that Paul was his sister), Kay Kay Menon, Esha Deol and Sonali Kulkarni and almost all Tollywood celebs including Maliah. “I am not fighting against June but against the ideology of Mamata Banerjee,” she says.

Maliah, known for her roles in movies like Teen Yaari Kotha, Obhishopto Nighty, Meri Pyaari Bindu, Zulfiqar and popular web series Abar Proloy, is banking heavily on Mamata and the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Baner jee, both of whom have, in public and internal meetings, asked party functionaries to work together and ensure her victory. “This is not my fight alone. It’s a unified battle being fought by all my colleagues in Midnapore under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. Agni is still a friend, and we talk about a lot of things in private gatherings. But I will fight till my last breath to free this constituency from Narendra Modi’s BJP,” said Maliah.

The shuffling of contenders by both parties has exposed the voters of this predominantly agrarian constituency in South Bengal — the birthplace of freedom fighters like Khudiram Bose and Matangini Hazra, social reformers like Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and artists like Sisir Kumar Bhaduri — to a spectacle of celebrities vying for political success. “I know our lives will not change much even after the elections, but these glitzy roadshows and campaigns by celebrity candidates are a welcome relief for us as life is pretty dull otherwise,” said Kalpana Murmu, a resident of Kankabati village in Midnapore.