Politics and pleasure on Poila Baishakh

KOLKATA: From queuing up with devotees at local temples, chatting with senior citizen to catching up with teenagers and youths during morning walks and offering sweets to passersby, politicians made the most of the first day of

Bengali new year

, going ahead with campaigns, different from the usual rallies and street corners.


South Kolkata’s Trinamool candidate Mala Roy started off her Poila Baisakh with queueing up outside the

Kalighat

temple. She waiting patiently for her turn, just like any other devote, offered pujas and then, spent some time with the others who had also come to the temple. “A temple is not a place to ask for votes. So I didn’t seek their votes but asked for their blessings and love,” Roy said. In the evening, she walked in a rally, but it was not the conventional one. Senior citizens participated in the procession, which also saw tribal groups performing as they weaved their way from Ballygunge Phari to Bijon Setu.

Her competitor from the same seat, Mita Chakraborty of the Congress, too, started off the day with a visit to a temple. A while later, she participated in a bike rally.

Even for BJP’s Chandra Bose, the first stop was at a temple, the Sree Guruvayurappan Temple on Manoharpukur Road. “My wife is from Kerala. I regularly offer prayers there. After that, I went to a Kali temple on Purna Das Road. At both the places, I met and interacted with a lot of people,” said Bose. The afternoon was all about a special Bengali lunch at home with relatives and some of his party colleagues. “I deliberately didn’t keep a door-to-door campaigning on

Poila Baishakh

morning as everyone needs rest,” he said.

Kolkata North BJP candidate Rahul Sinha also had an early start to Poila Baisakh as he joined morning-walkers at Tallah Park. He offered them lotus flowers—the party symbol—and then, went on to feed white pigeons and releasing balloons, carrying “Subha Nababarsha 1426” written on them. The morning ritual ended with him offering sweet packets to local businessmen. His rival, Trinamool’s Sudip Bandyopadhyay decided to have a cuppa and a chat at a roadside tea shop with residents of the area. He also offered sweets.

Some candidates, such as Trinamool Congress’ glam girls, Jadavpur candidate Mimi Chakraborty and Basirhat candidate Nusrat Jahan, kept their morning free of political commitments. They wanted to spend the time at home with their family. Mimi had gone to her Jalpaiguri home, where she had a scrumptious lunch of mutton and rice, cooked by her mother. “This is the first time in 16 years that I am spending Poila Baisakh with my family. I met a few old friends and acquaintances in the morning before heading out campaigning for the party’s Jalpaiguri candidate. But before that, I left a Nababarsha video message for my party colleagues,” said Chakraborty.

Nusrat took her family and friends out to a specialty restaurant for a Bengali lunch. Looking resplendent in a new Dhakai Jamdani saree, gifted by her mother, she said: “In the morning, we didn’t want to campaign in the extreme heat on a holiday. Instead, I took my family and friends for a Bengali lunch. From there, I went to Basirhat to take part in three successive rallies.”

Another actress-turned-politician, Locket Chatterjee, who will contest on a BJP ticket from Hooghly, held an innovative campaign. She first took out a cycle rally through the lanes and bylanes of Hooghly, and then, held a “boat campaign” on the river from Chandernagore. But she invited criticism from the Trinamool, which alleged she violated the norms by riding a boat without a life jacket and also taking along far more number of people on the vessel than allowed. “I just wanted to be as close to my constituency people as possible and spend the day the way they usually do to commute to work and back—ride a cycle to a certain point and then, take a boat ride on the Hooghly,” she said.

While many took the off-beat path to connect with the people, there were some, such as the CPM’s Nandini Mukherjee (Kolkata South) and Bikash Bhattacharya (Jadavpur), who stuck to the routine and went door to door from the very start of the day.

Mukherjee held a roadshow in the Sahidnagar locality in the interiors of Garfa, distributing leaflets, with Subho Nababarsha written on them, and greeting residents standing on their balconies and at their windows, sometimes making a short detour to shake a hand. “My party members planned for a roadshow that continued till 11:30am. I was back home for the afternoon. From 4pm, I again started my campaign till 6pm. After that, I met my party workers and held meetings,” she said.

CPM’s Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, the former mayor, claimed he did not believe in celebrating a particular day. “To me, it was a regular day of political activity. From 8am, I started my campaign, interacting with residents. I did attend a Poila Baisakh event at a housing complex in New Garia. Then I headed for Harinavi, where the members from the cultural wing of my party waited to begin a procession. I delivered an address and also recited poems, on their request,” Bhattacharya said.