Mamata's Marxist doesn't give a damn

BHANGAR (South 24-Pargans): Will Abdur Rezzak Mollah, 78, the CPM's one-time conscience keeper and Mamata Banerjee's prize catch, fire in these elections? The expelled Marxist and winner of eight assembly polls on the trot is TMC nominee from Bhangar, South 24-Parganas.
Mollah held the crucial land and land reforms portfolio in the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government.An outspoken man, he had earned the party's wrath following a tirade against the Left Front government's industrial policy in the turbulent days of the 2006-2011 Singur agitation. A man who calls himself a Marxist at heart, he has gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca. After their differences sharpened further, the party expelled him.
Soon after, Mollah launched a party but at the same time met CM Mamata Banerjee. The party he founded threw him out and he joined TMC. Mollah loves to be known as chasir beta (tiller's son). He has eight state election wins under his belt (1977 to 2011). This time, he is TMC's nominee from Bhangar. But that has done nothing to mellow his bluntness.Mollah says he cares little for Mamata's brand of politics.
He joined CPM in 1969, and remains the only Left leader with an enviable mass base. He was one of a handful of ministers in the Buddhadeb government to withstand the 2011 Mamata tsunami.What's more, as the CPM's key minority face, Mollah revealed the true-lies about minority development in December 2006 -much before Justice Rajinder Sachar tabled his report on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims.
Is he headed for yet another electoral win? Mollah's silence betrays the tension within. As does the security cover Mamata has provided him, perhaps to keep him safe from her lieutenant Arabul Islam. A controversial TMC functionary , Islam had once attacked Mollah and fired on a group of CPM workers. The TMC had then disowned Islam.
Another of Mollah's local adversaries, TMC strongman Kaizar Ahmed, is an Islam groupie. They call the veteran "man-slaughterer Rezzak". Didi has ap pointed the duo Mollah's poll managers.
Islam's reaction to this "poor joke" is a shrug. "I've told my party leadership they shouldn't hold Bhangar TMC unit responsible if they lose the seat," he says.
Mollah has changed his party colours but not his stripes. "Shudhu baam dike boshley baam hoya jai na" (one doesn't become a Leftist merely by sitting on the left), he asserts.
But he's way too astute not to read the writing on the wall at places like Shainhati...., where some "thoughtful" poll workers wrote this wall graffiti in red: "Vote for Comrade Rezzak Mollah". The catcalls are growing louder every day .
"At times like this, what's the option?
The CPM is a lighter shade of red now; like the TMC, it's restricted to Bengal's borders," Mollah says.
He misses the regimented CPM local committee, as opposed to the dog-eatdog TMC politics. Mollah describes his candidature as "fait accompli". He had contested from Bhangar in 1972, "Now I must start from scratch," he says. Neighbouring Canning East would have been a cakewalk, he says: "I guess Mamata has her reasons."
Mamata's "reason" for denying him the "safe" Canning East seat is her loyalist, former CPM neta, Saokat Molla. "Besides, Mamata wasn't confident about Arabul wresting back Bhangar. He is no mass leader. He scares the voter, doesn't instil confidence," Mollah explains.