Riding High On Winds Of Change

The tell-tale signs had been there. But maverick minister Subhas Chakraborty's wife, CPM candidate Ramola, had steered clear of these, clinging on to her husband's memories an usual tactic in politics. The results at Belgachia East bore out the signs. Forget sentiments. Instead, an utter disgust toward the ruling CPM found its way in the ballot boxes.Ramola's contender, Trinamool Congress candidate Sujit Bose, won by a margin of 28,360 votes breaking his once political guru, Subhas's 20,000-odd record of a winning margin, set way back in 1977.
Subhas had had a brush with reality during the 2006 Assembly elections. He managed to scrape through by 1,749 votes against Sujit Bose. In death, Subhas proved to be weaker still. "Subhasda would have lost the elections if he were alive. He is lucky that he bowed out unbeaten," said a local CPM worker.
The consistent downslide in the CPM votebank in this constituency, however, had been evident over the years. The ruling CPM was behind the Trinamool Congress by 16,000 votes during the Lok Sabha polls. And that's not all. The party suffered serious reverses in the South Dum Dum and Dum Dum municipal elections. All these wards come under the Belgachhia East constituency. Party leaders had failed to read the public pulse, blaming it on infighting. Pushed to the wall this time, party cadres Subhas loyalists and those loyal to Amitava Nandi came together to put up a united face. But that, clearly, didn't work.
What's more, some men who used to run the vote machinery for Subhas were missing at the forefront not because they took the fight lightly, but because they were reportedly averse to Ramola as a person.
The victor, Bose, a one-time Subhas loyalist, was very much aware of the depleting mass support and the organizational vacuum within. The vice-chairman of the South Dum Dum Municipality, Bose has been working in the area since long. He, thus, sailed safe on the urge for change, crushing the CPM myth in Belgachhia East.
The election results in this posh constituency has also set to rest the feeling that the educated middle-class does not endorse Mamata Banerjee's ways. The huge margin is proof that voters are in no mood to give CPM a chance. They don't mind who's coming or whether the new forces can offer an alternative.
"The change was in the air since long. But CPM did not allow people to cast their vote. People gave vent to their wants in ballot boxes this time, giving me and my party a huge margin," said a jubilant Bose after winning.
Ramola did not come to the polling station. Instead, her election agent, former MP Amitava Nandi, said: "There has been no change in the situation six months after the Lok Sabha poll. People opted for change. I have nothing against them. I would only request them to think what we are headed for."
But the fact that he was not comfortable with the rebuff was evident when this experienced CPM leader went amid the Trinamool crowd celebrating their party's victory outside the polling station. "You have won. I congratulate you. But will you be able to bring about the change you want? Think it over," Nandi said. The revellers booed at him, some pushed him, until police rescued him.
The defiant mood is likely to bury CPM's prospects in the Bidhannagar Municipal polls, scheduled in 2010. Ramola, incidentally, was leading in only three of the 23 wards in Salt Lake.