In the land of the Tebhaga movement does she regret the loot by the Saradha Trust? Does she admit her wrongdoing in taking 50 thousand rupees salary from a TV channel owned by the shady group that left lakhs of people destitute? No, Balurghat constituency’s Trinamool Congress candidate Arpita Ghosh is taking pride in her identity of theatre artist while asking for votes.
Theatre worker or Saradha worker? This is the question put to her by the opposition. She has been floating above the heads of her voters in Balurghat, Kumargunj, Gangarampur in helicopters with the CM Mamata Banerjee. She has no time for regret. Herds of intellectuals from Kolkata have been flocking to campaign for her. Amidst the cries of despair rising from the homes of the victims of the Saradha scam Arpita Ghosh is dreaming of going to parliament.
Innumerable people of Dakshin Dinajpur including Balurghat have lost money to Saradha. Now many other chit funds like the Tower Group, Rose Valley, Sumangal are not giving people their hard earned money back. The victims are mostly farmers, daily wage workers, shopkeepers. They are asking whether the Shyamal Sen commission can arrange for their money to be returned. While Kunal Ghosh is locked up in jail, why is Arpita who worked at “Ekhon Somoy”, an outlet of the Saradha Group, walking free?
Knowing fully well that the Saradha question will be raised the Chief Minister keeps on reiterating that Arpita will not bow her head to black money. However, questions have been raised within the Trinamool Congress itself. Harirampur MLA Biplab Mitra, a son of the soil, and his people have expressed serious reservations about their party’s candidate. He was after all one of the aspirants for the Party “ticket”. Confrontation between different groups within the TMC has also disturbed the area. Local Trinamool Congress workers also resent the nomination of an outsider.
This is the only Lok Sabha constituency of Dakshin Dinajpur. Traditionally a Left Front stronghold the Trinamool Congress was hopeful about winning at Balurghat this time around. The fact that they hold six out of the seven assemblies included in this constituency supported this claim. It was perhaps their safest seat as estimated earlier. But the break with the Congress has messed up their electoral balance sheet. Om Prakash Mishra of the Congress and Biswapriyo Roychowdhury of the BJP have become candidates. The BJP is investing greatly in campaigning in this area.
In this backdrop the Left Front nominated RSP candidate Bimal Sarkar has reason to be hopeful about a victory. In the last Lok Sabha elections RSP’s Prasanta Majumdar won this seat. Bimal Sarkar, a fresh face in electoral politics, but not new to the people’s movements, came into politics through the student movement and has been involved with the farmers’ struggle and workers’ movements. The Left Front workers have been upholding political agendas in his campaign. The slowdown in development in the district after the Assembly elections is the major point of argument.
April 18, 2014