Campaign ends in Haldia, Durgapur

1 June 2012

kanchan siddiqui & biswabrata goswami
DURGAPUR/HALDIA, 1 JUNE: At a time when the Trinamul Congress is roping in all the party's big names for campaigning to ensure a win in the Durgapur civic body election, the CPI-M strangely has not bought in any of its star leaders for campaigning apart from Dr Suryakanta Mishra.
Dr Mishra was accompanied by CPI-M district secretary Amol Haldar for the campaign. The CPI-M's reluctance to bring party stalwarts for the campaign has come has a huge surprise to others. On being asked to comment on this decision of the party, Mr Haldar said: “It's an election for the local self government. We think it is more rational for the the campaigning to be done by those who can talk on the local issues here.” 
The Trinamul Congress, on the other hand, assigned a bunch of party leaders, ministers to lodge in Durgapur and hold street corners, rallies, door to door campaigns.
Apart from the state Cabinet ministers ~ Mr Partha Chatterjee, Mr Moloy Ghatak, Mr Arup Biswas, Mr Madan Mitra, Mr Firhad Hakim and Union minister Mukul Roy ~ Mr Subrata Bakshi, Mr Shovondeb Chatterjee, Mrs Nargis Begum, Mrs Debashree Roy also came to Durgapur to campaign for the municipal election.
Mr Apurba Mukherjee, party’s mayoral candidate said: “This is a part of our coordination. The industry minister and the municipal affairs ministers explained the masses, the change, Durgapur will undergo once TMC wins the civic poll. The LF’s misrule and nepotism have crippled its growth and our ministers told the people exactly what Durgapur will be like under the TMC rule.” The Congress, disheartened with the non-shaping of the pre-declared alliance however, managed to convince PCC president Pradip Bhattacharya, party’s senior leaders Mr Adhir Chowdhury, Mrs Dipa Das Munshi to come to Durgapur and campaign for its 35 candidates. Mr Sudeb Roy, party’s Burdwan (industrial) district president, according to the insiders has already tendered his resignation as the state leadership didn’t agree to compromise with the Trinamul Congress’s offer of nine seats. He himself didn’t participate in any of the poll campaigns.
He said: “I was sick and couldn’t take part in the campaigns.” Dr Manas Bhuniya, the state irrigation minister also skipped campaigning citing health reasons.
The intense campaigning for the 3 June municipal elections at Haldia and Panskura civic bodies, which witnessed bitter verbal duels between titans of state politics, concluded today.
While the ruling Trinamul Congress urged the residents to give it a clear mandate, the Congress, BJP and the Left Front railed against the Trinamul Congress chief and chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The last day of campaigning saw Mr Subhendu Adhikari, a Trinamul Congress MP, Mr Biman Bose, CPI-M state secretary, Mr Shyamal Chakraborty and Mr Rabin Deb, CPI-M state secretariat members, among others, holding meetings at various places in Haldia and Panskura. Road shows, rallies and public meetings of different political parties were also held today.
Mr Adhikari, who held a meeting at Haldia, said: “People have rejected the Left Front in earlier polls and they will again make our candidates victorious in the civic poll. The CPI-M did not materialize any plans in the last 34 years in Haldia and Haldia residents were victimized for them. They could not solve the scarcity of drinking water and pollution here which were the basic demands of residents”.
Rulling out the TMC allegation, Mr Bose said: “The Trinamul Congress had created a terror-like situation among the residents for the past few years for which the Haldia civic board could not materialise plans.”