TMC’s ‘leader next door’ focuses on Cov relief

Kolkata: He might be 75 now, and a two-time MLA, but he can still offer a lesson or two in public relations to any wannabe politician. Paresh Paul’s leader-next-door image is not only his USP in Beliaghata constituency — that even a decade ago was considered a Left bastion — but also one that helped him clinch nomination a third time beating “stiff competition”. Whether it’s setting up of busts across Beliaghata-Phoolbagan, arranging for mass weddings, holding citizens’ meets, organizing the Ilish Utsav or organizing Subhas Mela, even Paul’s biggest critics agree that few can match his visibility.

His confidence at retaining the seat thus finds resonance even among his partymen. When TOI tried speaking to him on Wednesday, hours before the

polls

, his aide answered. “Dada is on his rounds meeting booth-level workers. You are aware of his image. He does not read the papers much but believes in reading the pulse of the people,” he said. A couple of hours later, the former MLA insisted on talking more about the Covid relief he is arranging than the election itself. “When someone studies each day, he is not worried about slogging the night before the exam. At present, my concern is my margin,” Paul said.

Paul had won in 2016, defeating CPM’s Rajib Biswas by 26,179 votes. In the Lok Sabha polls, when Trinamool found the going tough in several hundred seats, Paul handed his party a lead of 50,902 votes. A major chunk of minority votes from Rajabazar is likely to stay with the party with locals insisting that the Sanjukta Morcha’s ISF is not finding much support here.

However, Paul knows the fight will not be easy.

Both opposition candidates insist that a “free and fair election” will change the outcome. “The ruling party has turned elections here into a farce since 2011. The voters are threatened and not allowed to vote. If democracy prevails, it will be the CPM that will win. People have witnessed Covid and seen which party has stood by them,” claimed Rajib Biswas, who is contesting here for the second successive time.

BJP’s Kashinath Biswas has put his entire energy for the past one-and-a-half months in door-to-door campaigns rather than on big meetings and his effort has been noticed by residents. “I am confident. The Trinamool had built the lead in 2019 based on a bulk of minority votes and relied on their machinery to trounce democracy post 1pm. That will not happen this time,” he said.