When a veteran politician takes on minnows in an electoral battle, the result is not much in doubt. Yet even as she seeks to inch towards the winning post Trinamool Congress candidate for Kolkata south parliamentary constituency, Mala Roy is only too aware of the fact that she will have to walk the extra mile in what is considered to be the safest seat of her party in the state.
Not unsure of her victory, she knows come rain or shine the victory margin of the previous years has to be exceeded or held on to. Selected to contest in this constituency which her party chief, Mamata Banerjee once represented, it is a prestige fight for Roy.

The chairperson of Kolkata Municipal Corporation is no stranger to this seat having contested it five years ago as a Congress nominee. A turn of the wheels of fortune has placed her as a prospective winner of this seat. But it is certainly not a cakewalk for her.

Of her opponents, Chandra Kumar Bose of BJP, a scion of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family appears to be most formidable especially as it was a nominee of the saffron outfit who had bagged the maximum number of votes after Trinamool winner, Subrata Bakshi in the last parliamentary elections.
Bose also had several senior leaders of his party including ~ Union defence minister, Nirmala Sitaraman campaign for his cause ~ aiming to turn a saffron undercurrent into a tsunami.

Harping on a slew of issues like Pulwama martyrs, surgical strike and several Union government projects for the common man, the BJP nominee appears to give his Trinamool opponent a run for her money.
A demographical change in parts of Bhowanipore Assembly segment which Mamata Banerjee represents coupled with some high-rises coming up in place of several slums which had been Trinamool vote banks from time, she first contested from this parliamentary constituency which is considered to be a windfall for Bose.

The sight of armed processionists marching past parts of this area has had its fallout on civic polls. Though a councillor who won as a BJP nominee have switched over to Trinamool, he cannot claim to a changeover of his voters’ political allegiance.

Bose is banking on all these factors and hoping for an undercurrent for a turn in the tide. As for the CPI-M nominee, Nandini Mukherjee, a senior academic from Jadavpur University, who had once contested against the chief minister is again seeking the people’s mandate on issues ranging from rising unemployment, skyrocketing prices petrol and diesel, Trinamool’s failure to check communal violence and BJP encouraging it to name a few.
Roy considers both BJP and CPI-M nominees as her principal opponents discounting the Congress nominee, Mita Chakraborty as a greenhorn. The shadow of Banerjee looms large over Kolkata (south) constituency. Ever since, she was tried to be bludgeoned to death by a CPI-M activist on an August day at Hazra crossing, her brush with death flung her to fame.

As Banerjee’s stature grew, the fortunes of the party she represented improved. If she never tasted a reverse as a Congress nominee in this constituency, with her luck holding even when she was the lone representative of Trinamool in parliament after 2006 Lok Sabha elections. Banerjee’s outreach to the people has grown ever since she had been a member of Atal Behari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet as Union railway minister and became the chief minister.

Along with sanctioning of projects during her tenure as Union railway minister, jobs too poured in. Her government did not cover itself with glory in the wake of Saradha chit fund scam and Narada sting operation. Yet, Trinamool reaped the dividend of her good work at successive elections. Thus, charges of corruption against the ruling party in the state lose sting before the economically challenged masses whose esteem for the Trinamool has gone up by the implementation of projects, especially the scheme of giving rice at Rs two per kilogram.

Her critics may have lambasted the chief minister for her slanging match with Prime Minister, Narendra Modi over a plethora of issues ranging from law and order to relief work in the wake of cyclone Fani. But such verbal duel has also placed her as a champion of several classes of voters especially a wide section of a minority community.

Of course, there are discordant voices like Sambik Bhattacharya, a jobless youth who blames the Trinamool regime or Raju Das, a Trinamool supporter who feels there is no future for her daughter unless jobs are generated in the state. But, more voters share the thinking of Janak Ram, a cobbler and his kith and kin who felt did as the chief minister is popularly known and her candidates need to be given more time to create opportunities for the people.

With all the seven legislators and most of the councillors representing her party, the Trinamool nominee has her constituency fairly sewn up. As she brushes off the petals from her head which had rained in welcome, her followers beckon her to leave for another campaign trail to ensure it is an advantage to Mala Roy.

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