Tamluk is the other Lok Sabha seat the Adhikaris had been holding the reins of. Here too, Dibyendu, the sitting Tamluk MP and Sisir’s elder son, vacated the seat for former high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay.
For Suvendu Adhikari, the Opposition leader in Bengal assembly, ensuring a win for his brother Soumendu in Contai is equal to ensuring his own.
Contai has witnessed significant changes over the years. Among them has been the rise of Adhikari senior, who started out as a gram panchayat member in 1962 and went on to become a three-time MP and a junior Union minister. Soumendu, therefore, carries a huge burden of expectations and is leaving nothing to chance.
At Chaukhali, in the Chandipur assembly segment of the Contai LS seat that Trinamool won in 2021, Soumendu recently held a bike rally. About 150 bikes carrying 400 party workers zigzagged down the lanes here, seeking votes for Soumendu. “I am no astrologer, but I am telling you we will lead in all the seven assembly segments. I suffered a lot when this (state) govt named me in fake criminal cases. It’s time they answered for it,” Soumendu said.
A little later, at Batnan village, Soumendu claims he has the people’s blessings. His aides claim Sisir fought against the formidable Left Front for decades and scripted its decline.
Whichever way the political winds seem to be blowing in Contai, on paper at least, Soumendu stands on strong ground. BJP won four of the seven assembly seats here in the 2021 polls — Contai North, Contai South, Khejuri and Bhagabanpur. Trinamool had to stay content with Patashpur, Ramnagar and Chandipur.
Patashpur MLA Uttam Barik is Trinamool’s pick for Contai. The party’s performance in the 2023 panchayat elections has punctured BJP’s “invincibility” in the rural belts dotting Contai. Along with a resurgent Trinamool, the Adhikaris are battling another adversary: the state govt’s social schemes have gained traction and the CAA-NRC issue has found takers in East Midnapore, where Muslims form nearly 15% of the population.
Every day, once he steps out of his makeshift office in Contai, what awaits Barik is hectic campaigning in hamlets bordering the coastal town of Digha – Talgachari, Danda Belboni, Juki and Kabra. He offers puja at every shrine on the way and connects with the voters.
The local area MLA and senior East Midnapore Trinamool leader Akhil Giri has been missing from these meetings. There are rumblings of factionalism with Giri perceived as being opposed to Barik. But factionalism is the least of concerns for Trinamool workers at present. Ensuring Soumendu Adhikari’s defeat is their sole mission.
Back in Ramnagar, Barik gets “dismissive” when asked about Soumendu. “My fight is against BJP. I will not utter the name of a man who has no ideals, the one who used Trinamool for his family’s gains and then dumped it for his own goals. I have the calculations ready, and we are winning,” he insisted.
The region throws up sharply divided loyalties. Ardent Trinamool voters like Lakhan Gorui of Alampur in Ramnagar are furious. “They keep calling Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee chor (thief). What proof do they have?” he asked. TMC workers claimed Mamata has also said that both father and son (Sisir and Suvendu) had colluded with the CPM, leading to loss of lives at Nandigram on March 14, 2007.
But BJP supporters disagree. “He (Sisir) went all the way to Delhi to attend Abhishek’s marriage. Today, they are yet again trying to discredit the role of the Adhikari family in the Nandigram movement against land acquisition. But everyone here knows he and Suvendu mobilised resources and people for it. He (Sisir) even suffered a cracked hip in the violence that followed and it has yet not healed,” a BJP organiser, who was earlier with Trinamool, said.
