Can Mamata tun around Purulia’s fate?

Can Mamata tun around Purulia’s fate?
PURULIA: Well before Mamata Banerjee's chopper landed on the J K College ground on Monday afternoon, the sun began a game of hide and seek with dark rain-bearing clouds - warning of a nor'wester that didn't materialise. In the end there wasn't any respite from the heat wave that has already taken Purulia into its grasp.

Ominous signs, maybe. Will Mamata's winds of change stop blowing in the district of Purulia, leaving the people to suffer the stifling heat of a regime that has done little in the last three decades for the development of what can easily be listed as one of the most backward districts in the country.

If attendance is anything to go by, Mamata's rally in Purulia wasn't a grand success. Of the 6,000-odd people who had turned up at the venue, nearly a quarter had been attracted by the helicopter. The remaining were hardcore Didi fans, no doubt. But would this be good enough to storm the Left citadel like Purulia?

Things have certainly changed in the district. This time round, the Trinamool Congress' posters, banners and wall-graffiti match that of the CPM, at least in numbers. Thanks to the Trinamool-controlled Purulia Municipality, all lamp posts and pillars in the town have been painted in the colours of the tri-colour. The Trinamool's Ghas Phool is missing though and one can't blame the civic bosses for having a 'patriotic' bent of mind.

But then, is the Trinamool a potent enough force to take on the Left in this district? The Congress symbol is conspicuous by its absence from the banners and graffiti that urge voters to support the Congress-Trinamool alliance. The Left Front may have swept the district in the 2006 Vidhan Sabha polls but the Congress does have a base in Purulia. On Monday, not a single Congress leader from the district shared the dais with Mamata.

The Trinamool chief didn't seem to mind and went on about how she would develop the district and ensure that people didn't have to search for jobs elsewhere. She claimed that the Congress-Trinamool alliance has already won sufficient seats to form a government. "We are just looking forward to consolidating our position," she said.

"The CPM will offer you bicycles, mobile phones and also money. Accept the gifts but vote for the Congress-Trinamool alliance. After all, the 'comrades' are not spending their own money on such gifts. It is your money they are spending," Mamata said.

In 2006, save for the Jhalda constituency, all seats had gone to the Left in Purulia. Based on the 2009 Lok Sabha results and the delimitation, the Congress-Trinamool alliance may win upto four of the nine seats in the district this time round. In 2006, the Congress and Trinamool hadn't succeeded in forging an alliance but statistics reveal that in most places, the Left candidates got larger numbers of votes than the Congress and Trinamool taken together. This time, Mamata has left three of the nine seats for the Congress. The Left has a clear advantage in two of these. No wonder, not all is well within the Congress ranks.