Collapsed flyover takes the sheen off Mamata's poriborton plank in Kolkata

KOLKATA: Burrabazar. One of India's largest wholesale markets and a symbol of the old Calcutta. But in the 2016 elections, Burrabazar has now become an example of just why Mamata's poriborton dream has become somewhat mired in sloth and disillusionment. When the flyover collapsed a fortnight ago, it wasn't just over 20 people who died but Mamata's dream of a sparkling new Kolkata also received a bit of a setback. Many parts of Kolkata have got an undoubted face lift yet the follies of the Left-dominated past have returned to haunt Mamata Banerjee's election campaign.

Posted on one of the columns of the ruined flyover a poster reads: "London noy, nirapod Kolkata chay." We don't want London, we want a Kolkata without disasters. Residents of this Marwari-Jain dominated bustling congested bazaar, say the flyover collapse has made them very angry. "For years we put up with the noise of the construction, now all night there are halogen lights and loudspeakers, it has made our lives miserable," says Susheela Surana, housewife and resident of an old building cheek by jowl with the flyover.

"The urban voter is undoubtedly disgusted and disillusioned with the flyover collapse and if votes are not rigged then certainly that disappointment will show in the Kolkata results," says Miratun Nahar, academic and activist. "The way the 5 lakh compensation was speedily announced was itself highly political."

Shambhunath Roy runs a medical equipment business in Burrabazar and is part of a movement to terminate the flyover. "There has to be some effect of this on the way we feel," he says. "Why should Kolkata get a facelift only in some areas and not in others?" He displays a copy of the Ananda Bazar Patrika, the Bengali broadsheet highly critical of the TMC government. "My views are that of the Ananda Bazar. Don't forget it was this newspaper that put Indira Gandhi in the dock."

"There was not that much help from the government when the disaster happened," says Kamal Kishore Sharma, who runs a tea trading firm in the heart of Bara Bazar. "Local people did everything. So we can't give the government any credit for relief."

Anger, helplessness, despair and a biting sarcasm is the dominant tone in Burrabazar today. "What is the point of painting a city blue if the common person is feeling scared to go under a bridge," asks Sandhya a resident and housewife.

"The urban voter is disillusioned with the government," says economics professor Dipankar Dasgupta. "There's been a cultural degradation in language. The Left was bad, but today its even worse. The goodwill that the TMC had after Singur is fading away. The culture of fear, the strong arm tactics have put many off. The flyover collapse has made many very worried about the future."

But although there are many critical voices against the Mamata government there does not seen to be any endorsement of the opposition either. "Flyover collapse has only shown that every party is equally bad," says Sharma.

It was in south Kolkata that Mamata began her rise in politics in 1984 and urban Bengal was the engine that drove her election juggernaut in 2011. But if the mood in Bara Bazar is any indication, WB CM's biggest test in this election is reviving her credibility in urban Bengal, even as she scores in rural parts.