Raja Das, a worker with a steel plant here is a diehard CITU cadre but is impressed by Dilip Ghosh, BJP candidate for Bardhaman Durgapur as Ghosh takes on the ruling Trinamul Congress in state. He said, “It seems my party’s candidate has no chance to win and my family would never vote for Mamata Banerjee’s party as she’d ‘murdered’ the massacred Singur project.”

Another youth, Shibananda Das from Kanchannagar in Burdwan town who had voted for BJP’s S S Ahluwalia in 2019 has no faith in the party now. “The MP could not be seen at crucial times, be it the Trinamul Congress goons thrashing us in 2021 or the successive collapse of railway station portico or the water tank,” he said. Monoroma Ghosh, a housewife in Panagarh hit out at the BJP over Lakshmir Bhandar: “They increased the LPG prices and now threaten to stop Didi’s gift to us.”

Since the day Dilip Ghosh landed in Bardhaman Durgapur constituency, he was aware that the previous party MP was not seen much in the constituency. He himself expressed his annoyance on this issue.

The Bardhaman Durgapur seat accommodates a large pool of industrial workers, still influenced by CITU, CPM’s labour arm, besides a section of wealthy and marginal farmers. The constituency has 14.33 lakh voters. In 2019, Ahluwalia dropped by in his constituency for just a handful of days. He had won the seat by a thin margin of 2,439 votes, but surprisingly, he’d a cakewalk in the CITU-dominated Durgapur (Purba) and Durgapur (Paschim) seats where alone he’d harvested a hefty lead of 80,202 votes over the TMC’s Dr Mumtaz Sanghamita Chowdhury. In the neighbouring Galsi segment too, he’d a lead of 9,621 votes over her. Ahluwalia was ravaged in Bhatar and Monteswar segments, the minority pockets and in SC-dominated Bardhaman (Uttar), where Mumtaz secured 72,546 votes lead.

Will Ghosh be able to ensure a repeat victory remains a question. However, this time there is no guarantee of the Left votes, “No question of absolute exodus of Left votes to BJP. We’ve got a qualified and eligible candidate in Professor Sukriti Ghosal here,” said CITU’S secretary in the Steel Workers Union in Durgapur. Sourav Dutta, the convenor of the trade union, said: “Possibly our men were lured due to Ahluwalia’s flamboyant assurances and his high claims as a longtime parliamentarian but his last five year’s inefficiency ultimately has exposed him.”

The TMC has fielded Kirti Azad, a turncoat from BJP and a former national cricketer who’s having a stiff language barrier especially in Burdwan’s rice bowl. He’s desperately trying to combat BJP’s Hindu reawakening challenge with a single liner: “I’m a Maitheli Brahmin and come from Devi Sita’s land.” He too has little to say about the resurgence of the steel industry but surely has got a ‘better’ command in countering the largest party on national issues. Pradip Majumdar, state panchayat minister has been Kirti’s mentor here.

Many in the constituency complained Kirti can’t speak in Bengali and this helped Ghosh to tag him as an ‘outsider’. Ghosh said: “How can a person, who can’t communicate with the people bring welfare for them?”

Sukriti, the CPM candidate, said, “Once burnt their fingers pressing the lotus button, our voters have vowed to press the ‘right’ Left button this time, for sure.”