Kolkata: With former rivals ganging up to oust a common enemy, the city has witnessed many firsts this poll season. On Saturday, it saw a few more. Former CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya pressed the button with the hand symbol days after donning the Congress' tricolour scarf at a rally where he shared the stage (and a garland) with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Party colleague Mohammed Salim voted for Deepa Dasmunshi, who he had trounced in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. And Deepa forgave and forgot past acrimonies - Left cadres had once broken husband Priya Ranjan's arm - and enjoyed a lunch of biryani at the CPM's Patuapara office.
All these to defeat Didi, who kept herself closeted in her Kalighat residence through the day, stepping out only once in the afternoon to vote for herself at Bhowanipore Mitra Institution.
The battle for Bhowanipore, the epicentre of the polls, has turned out to be a fight between Didi (Mamata) and boudi (Deepa). If Mamata projected herself as the home-grown daughter, Deepa reached out to most as Bhowanipore's Boudi.
"I was born and grew up in Bhowanipore, just like Mamata. We used to live on School Row, just off Harish Park and I used to study at Sakhawat Memorial School, all in this constituency. Later, as Priya Dasmunshi's wife, I became everyone's boudi, including Mamata's, who was then on our side of the political spectrum," Deepa said on Saturday.
How the Didi-boudi tussle plays out will be known only on May 19, but Bhowanipore old-timers claim it will still be a walkover for the "parar meye".
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