KOLKATA: Abhijit Das is a self-declared Bhumiputra who was severely assaulted allegedly by TMC.
The BJP came out with its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls on March 2, announcing 195 candidates across 16 states and two Union Territories. The Trinamool Congress followed soon after by announcing the full list of candidates at a huge rally in Kolkata’s Brigade Parade ground on March 10. While candidates hit the campaign trail across Bengal, there was one constituency for which the BJP kept everyone waiting, Diamond Harbour.
Diamond Harbour, the southernmost constituency in Bengal, has been the self-proclaimed karmabhoomi for Trinamool scion Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of state Chief Minister and TMC chief, Mamata Banerjee. Finally, in its 12th list, the BJP ended all speculation and named its homegrown leader Abhijit Das, alias Bobby, to take on Mamata Banerjee’s putative heir.
As BJP spokespersons laboured to put up a brave front on television, defending the party’s choice, the Trinamool Congress could barely hide its glee. The question discussed at myriad chai-pe-charchas was what prompted the ruling party to field an unknown against TMC’s heir apparent.
“Everyone was expecting a high-profile name to take on Abhishek. By naming Abhijit Das, the BJP laid itself open to the charge of a secret setting with Mamata to give a walkover to Abhishek,” says Biswanath Chakraborty, professor of political science at Rabindra Bharati University. “We were hearing better-known names, but the BJP leadership sprang a surprise,” he adds.
However, 54-year-old Abhijit Das, better known by his nickname Bobby, is a self-declared Bhumiputra with ancestral ties with Diamond Harbour, who hopes to upset Abhishek Banerjee’s applecart once elections take place on the last phase of polling on 1 June. He had contested against Banerjee in 2014 as well.
“I am a living proof of the TMC’s brutality in Bengal and Abhishek Banerjee is the face of that brutality. The people of Diamond Harbour are waiting to rid themselves of his atyachar (torture),” he told The Sunday Guardian, referring to an assault allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters six years ago.
An old-timer yet not-so-prominent face in Bengal’s politics, Das claims the assault left him with a severely injured spinal cord, bundled ligaments and metal plates inserted on a leg, almost immobilising him from the waist down.
Das, better known to his followers as Bobby, suffered those injuries in December 2018 when he, along with another party colleague, was dragged out of his car allegedly by Trinamool-sheltered goons on NH 117 while on his way to Diamond Harbour to attend a party meeting and beaten up mercilessly with bamboo poles, sticks, iron rods and sharp instruments. Das, then, was the BJP’s district president of South 24 Parganas under which the Diamond Harbour seat falls.
He says he attracted the ruling party’s ire for his “sustained opposition to and exposure of” Banerjee’s “undemocratic and illegal activities” in the region and because he contested against the Trinamool heavyweight in the 2014 general elections.
A resident of Amtala, not far from the Diamond Harbour suburban tourist and business hub, where he was born, Das prefers calling himself a “bhumiputra” (son of the soil) of the constituency, unlike Banerjee who resides in Kolkata.
Das had contested the Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket, first in 2009 and then again in 2014 and on both occasions finished third. In 2009, he managed a paltry 37,542 votes against Trinamool Congress heavyweight Somen Mitra, who had migrated from the Congress.
Das’ performance five years later against the first-timer Abhishek was, however, a lot better where he garnered over two lakh votes, swinging nearly 13% votes from the ruling dispensation. The BJP dropped Das from the poll fray in 2019.
“The 2014 polls were a farce since over 400 booths in the seat were captured by the TMC,” Das alleges.
Asked if the Election Commission’s assurance of a “level playing field” for all parties has boosted confidence this time, Das said: “Going by last year’s panchayat poll experience, I am not sure. Abhishek holds total sway over the police and administration of the district.
The EC depends on these very officials to ensure free and fair polls.”
Das’ political indoctrination started during his final years in school when he came in contact with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He became an active worker of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS’ student wing, during his days at Surendranath College in north Kolkata. His attachment to the Sangh Parivar only intensified during his later years as a post-graduate and law student.
BJP leaders in Bengal maintained that Abhijit’s long-term RSS-BJP connection and his experience of contesting from Diamond Harbour twice before finally sealed the deal of re-nominating him for the third time for the seat whose face the party’s central election committee took the longest time to decide.
Though Abhishek Banerjee received 56% votes in the 2019 elections and the BJP candidate 33%, the BJP is banking on the presence of the CPI(M)’s youth leader Pratikur Rahman, a Muslim candidate fielded by the Left-Congress combine.
Last election’s trend reveals that Muslims, who comprise 36% of the voters had voted en bloc for the Trinamool, while the Left-Congress together received 8% votes. “Given the widespread allegations of corruption against the Trinamool Congress, if Pratikur Rahaman can split the Trinamool’s Muslim vote bank, and get about 20% votes, the BJP can definitely put up a tough fight against Abhishek. In the Diamond Harbour constituency, 32% of the voters are from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who may be influenced by the Modi factor and Ram Mandir inauguration,” says Suman Chattopadhyay, veteran journalist.